Until the Darkness Goes Away
by CommanderCatbug
Summary: Thanks to the expulsion of her twin brother Liam, Olivia Dunbar is going back to public school. The twins should be closer than ever, but now Liam is keeping secrets and staying out to all hours. Olivia just wants to know what happened to her brother, but she might be biting off more than she can chew. And there might be unexpected changes coming her way, too.
1. Book 1: Chapter 1

Olivia Dunbar had no idea how she had ended up in public school again. Not that there was necessarily anything wrong with public school, but Beacon Hills High was certainly not Devenford Prep. Olivia and her twin brother, Liam, had attended the elite prep school for the last four months. But then Liam was kicked out right before Christmas break because of his issues with the lacrosse coach, and where one twin went, the other followed.

She still had some acquaintances from her years at Beacon Hills Junior High, but she hadn't really stayed in contact as much as she should have. Olivia didn't think that she was all that stuck-up, but there was just something about Devenford that had essentially cut her off from her old life. And now that she had departed from the "prestigious institution" (she wouldn't miss the stuffy language that ran rampant through said institution's halls), it was likely she would rarely hear from her friends there.

Olivia sighed at her lonely thoughts as she took in the scene before her. She was perched on the cold metal bleachers of the school's athletic field, watching the lacrosse team tryouts. When the twins' stepfather had dropped them off for school that day, he'd asked - well, 'begged' seemed like a more accurate term - Olivia to stay late and watch the tryouts. She was, after all, the only one that would be able to calm Liam down if his I.E.D. started acting up. And sure, she was pissed that her brother had possibly ruined her chances of getting a full ride to Carnegie Mellon by forcing her to leave one of the best private schools in the state. But that didn't mean she didn't want the best for him. He was her brother. One of her main goals in life was for him to be happy. And if being on a slightly-above-average public school lacrosse team helped with that...then she'd do her best to support him.

Liam was running around the field, staying pretty faithfully at the front of the pack. As soon as he passed Coach Finstock for the last time, he began to do push-ups by the watercooler. Other athlete-wannabes were catching their breath or doing small stretches to keep their muscles from cramping, but not her brother. He looked sweet and innocent, with his upturned nose and baby-blue eyes. But he was just as big a showoff as any other talented teenage boy. Luckily, she ended up being distracted by a cheerful call of "Olivia!" from the bottom of the bleachers. Mason Hewitt, Liam's best friend since the first grade, was climbing up the rows toward her, grinning from ear to ear.

"I didn't know you were going to be here!" Mason declared, delighted. Olivia couldn't help but smile at the boy, who was like a brother to her. One of the only good things about Beacon Hills High was that she would be seeing Mason on a more regular basis. They hugged quickly, before sitting down on the blanket that Mason had so thoughtfully brought. Honestly, she was surprised he hadn't brought a thermos of hot chocolate. It was totally something he would do. He was nice like that.

"Doc asked me to come. He was worried that my brother would do something stupid." She rolled her eyes, causing Mason to chuckle.

"Liam Dunbar? Doing something stupid? Never," he drawled sarcastically, and the pair started to crack up. Liam was a nice enough guy, but his I.E.D. always ended up getting the three of them into trouble. They were banned from two city playgrounds and the public library because of him. Thankfully, the high school had a pretty extensive collection on its own, and parents could always be asked to pick up certain necessary books.

"How's he doing so far?" Mason asked, scanning the field. One would think that he was trying to spot his friend, but Olivia knew better. He was on the hunt for a boyfriend, and who better to date than a ripped lacrosse boy? Not that she would know about that, of course. She tended to turn into an awkward stuttering mess around cute boys, and had never had a significant other because of it.

"Good, I think. You'd think I'd know enough about this stupid sport by now," she huffed, "But you know how I am."

Mason nodded. It was a fact known by anyone acquainted with the twins that Liam was definitely the athletically-inclined sibling. Honestly, Olivia had to put a majority of her focus into not tripping as she walked around most days. But she was also much better at school than her brother. She'd been accepted at Devenford because of her stellar grades, not just because her stepfather had pull with the school.

Cheers from the center of the field called their attention to Liam, who had just scored a goal on the goalie. He looked smug as he turned towards the bleachers, waving at his sister and best friend. They smiled and waved back, before Mason let out a soft, "Ooh." Olivia looked at him, confused, and he just pointed back to the field.

"That's Scott McCall, a junior. He was team captain last year," he said of the boy who stood at the front of the line, "He's supposed to be amazing. One of the best lacrosse players Beacon Hills has seen in years. And he's pretty cute, too."

Olivia nodded, studying the boy. She could only see his profile, but that was enough to see the determined look in his eye. He flung his crosse, and the ball he was holding bounced off the edge of the goal. The rest of the prospective players laughed at him, and Liam's friend Garrett even called out, "Nice, McCall!" The sarcasm was evident, and Olivia frowned. Maybe the older boy was just off to a rough start, nothing to be mocked about. But that was just the way it was with boys, she discovered. They had to insult each other to make themselves feel better. Much like a lot of girls, if Mean Girls was anything to go by.

The goal shots carried on for quite a while, with Liam making every shot he attempted. Each time, Olivia and Mason cheered, and each time, he looked at them with so much happiness that it was almost nauseating. But the other boys trying out seemed to be very fond of her brother, which made her smile. Maybe Beacon Hills High wouldn't be so bad, after all. On the other hand, Scott continued to struggle, as did a boy named 'Stiles', who Mason told her was Scott's best friend. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear they were dating," was all Mason had to say of the two boys' friendship.

Coach blew his whistle, and all the boys gathered in front of him. Words were exchanged, and Scott and Stiles ran towards the goal, picking up longsticks on the way. The two juniors took up defensive positions in front of the goal, and Garrett had first crack at them. The blond boy tried to fake them out, but Scott was too quick for him. He knocked Garrett down, and Olivia couldn't help but smile. Garrett was her least favorite of Liam's friends - she thought he was a cocky asshole - and she was pleased to see him fail at something.

Stiles cheered, high-fiving Scott as Coach called out, "That's my boys!" It was an odd comment, since she was pretty sure he was supposed to be impartial. But Mason assured her that Coach was "eccentric, boarding on crazy" and it was just best to roll with it. A boy in green went up against Scott and Stiles next, and he was mowed down by a double-team smash. The two defenders jumped and knocked helmets, and Olivia snorted.

"Boys are dumb. Why do we like them?" she inquired, not really serious.

Mason nodded, a considerate look on his face. "Because they have nice abs," he said decisively. Olivia laughed at that, and he grinned at her.

Back on the field, Stiles and Scott took down a boy in blue, Coach cheering them on. The two boys celebrated by bumping chests, with Stiles falling down immediately afterwards. So obviously Stiles was not the physically-gifted member of their friendship.

Finally Liam was at the front of the line, and Olivia knew from her brother's stance that he was taking this seriously. This was the kind of situation their stepfather had been afraid of, and suddenly she was glad that she was there. There was a high chance that Liam was going to explode, and she would be the only shield between everyone else and the blast. Crossing her fingers, she looked at Mason, to see if he had noticed Liam's posture. He looked at her with wide eyes, signaling that he had.

Liam swung his crosse in the air, like the drama king he was, and rushed towards the goal. He dodged Stiles, who once again fell to the ground, with an impressive jumping side-step. He turned and ducked under Scott's incoming crosse, transferring his own behind his back. He spun and threw, and Olivia and Mason cheered as the ball went into the net. As he ran towards the end of the line, a brunette girl at the bottom of the bleachers stood up and yelled, "That was luck!" Coach turned to look at her, eyes only a little wider to convey his surprise.

"Do-over!" the girl called, cupping her hands around her mouth.

"Sweetheart, there's no do-overs. This is a practice," Coach informed her, chuckling a bit. But the girl wouldn't back down.

"Ten bucks on Scott and Stiles," she declared, and Coach grinned.

"I'll take that action," he said, pointing at her before turning back to the field. "Hey! Get back in there, Liam!" he yelled.

Olivia sighed. Just when she thought she could stop worrying. "Who the hell does that girl think she is?" she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Malia Tate. She's Stiles' girlfriend," Mason informed her, not looking away from the action on the grass.

"Of course she is," Olivia grumbled.

Liam stepped to the front of the line again, and Stiles and Scott returned to their defending positions. The crowd on the bleachers seemed to hold their breath, waiting to see what would happen. Lunging forward, Liam once again dodged Stiles, who had jumped in the air before falling into a somersault. But immediately after, Scott went for his lower body, and Liam flew over the junior's back like a sack of potatoes. The freshman crashed to the ground, an audible crack sounding through the air. A stunned silence laid across the pitch as the older boys pulled off their masks.

Olivia was off like a shot, racing towards her brother's prone body. She followed Coach as he raced towards Liam and yelled, "Don't move! Don't touch him!"

"I'm okay, Coach. I'm alright," Liam tried to assure the older man as he got to his feet. But he let out a cry and fell back into the clutches of Scott and Stiles.

"I think it's my leg," Liam whispered, but his voice was overpowered by Stiles' declaration that they should get him to the nurse.

Olivia followed them as the three boys left the field, completely ignoring the commotion happening behind her. The trio headed towards the school, specifically the boys' locker room. Normally, the thought of entering such a place was enough to make her gag, but she had tunnel vision right now.

Upon entering the locker room, Liam was hastily deposited on a bench before Stiles ran out to look for the nurse. Scott hovered a few feet from where Liam sat in pain, and Olivia approached the much taller boy.

"What the hell," she spat as she poked him in the chest, "did you do to him?"

Scott looked down at her with confusion on his face. "Um...who are you?"

"I'm his sister, and I want to know what the hell you did to my brother!" There wasn't much that could set Olivia off, especially since she considered herself to be a fairly chill person. But anyone that messed with her twin was going to get an earful from her.

"I...I didn't mean to!" Scott stuttered, possibly in an attempt to defend himself, based on the fact that he held his hands up in surrender. But Olivia was having none of that, even if his crooked jaw and puppy eyes were ridiculously endearing.

"I don't care if you 'didn't mean to'," she stated, glaring daggers, "What if you broke his leg? He loves lacrosse! If he can't play this season, he'll be devastated!"

Any response on Scott's part was stopped as Stiles came back in, followed by the nurse. She made quick work of examining Liam, promptly informing the gathered teens that he had sprained or broken his leg, but either way he needed to get to the hospital. She then bustled out of the room, leaving a murderous Olivia with two idiots and her injured brother.

"One of you two better be able to drive, because you're not getting out of this," she growled.

"My Jeep's out front," Stiles said. Olivia said nothing, and Stiles took that to mean that his car would do.

Scott begged off for a moment, so he could go inform his girlfriend about their departure. Olivia didn't see why it mattered, but she let him go after he promised it would take no longer than 5 minutes. She impatiently tapped her foot while Scott was in the hallway, causing Stiles to shoot a glare at her. But she glared right back, so the older boy backed off.

Eventually Scott came back in to the locker room, only to head right back out. This irritated Olivia to no end, but there wasn't much she could do about it. He probably had about 20 or 30 pounds on her, and a heck of a lot more muscle, so she couldn't see herself being able to drag him back. He wasn't even gone another minute, and when he came back, he had a huge grin on his face. Stiles bounded over to him with the energy of a jack-rabbit, and they enthusiastically bro-hugged.

Olivia didn't have to say anything to break them apart, as Liam chose that moment to moan in pain once more. Scott and Stiles finally snapped to it, picking Liam up so they could head to the parking lot. Olivia was in charge of opening all doors in the way, and she let out a heavy sigh of relief when she finally spotted a blue Jeep outside. The three of them hurriedly loaded Liam into the car, and Olivia sat next to him in the backseat, holding his hand the whole time. Her brother looked at her appreciatively, and she gave him a small smile in return.

The car ride was quiet, the low sounds of some pop song flowing out of the speakers being the only sound besides Liam's moans of pain. Every time Scott opened his mouth or looked towards the backseat, Stiles subtly shook his head and the other boy returned to a neutral sitting position, eyes on the road. It was a great benevolence when they finally pulled up in front of Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital and the twins could finally unload themselves from the death-trap on wheels. The juniors hustled Liam inside and Olivia followed close behind, making sure that they didn't injure her brother more.

A nurse in blue scrubs - Scott called her "Mom" - helped them lift Liam into a wheelchair. Then she grabbed hold of the chair's handles and told the other three teens to sit in the waiting room while she took Liam to be examined. But Stiles told Scott that he had to go help Malia study, and left without saying a word to Olivia. She was fine with that, although she was miffed that he got out of his wrongdoing so easily. Granted, he hadn't actually been the one to hurt Liam, but she still felt like he was just as guilty.

The boys had a muttered exchange before Stiles left, and Olivia didn't pay them any attention. She was too busy texting Mason to let him know what was going on. She would have texted her mother, but she knew that her stepfather was on duty and would let her know what was up. As Stiles finally left, Olivia looked over at Scott, who was leaning against the front desk with a dejected look on his face. She almost felt sorry for this near-adult, who probably felt threatened by her brother's skill and was worried about being ousted from his position as team captain. But none of that mattered. He had still injured her brother, probably benching Liam for the whole season. And she was not going to let him get away with that.

* * *

Olivia sat in the waiting room for what felt like eternity, texting with her friends from Devenford and with Mason. Eventually she noticed that Scott had wandered off, but she didn't really care at this point. She was worried about Liam, but Scott's mom had come and told her that their stepdad was doing his examination, so she wasn't as worried as before. When Dr. Geyer came out into the waiting room about two hours after Liam had been taken away, he looked surprised to see her.

"Olivia, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I came in with Liam. I was at tryouts, just like you asked me to be. Didn't he tell you?"

"He did." The man paused, wrinkling his eyebrows as he frowned, "But I thought you two had left."

"What are you talking about? Liam hasn't come out. Nurse McCall told me that you were waiting on an x-ray," Olivia informed him.

"We were, but Liam wasn't in his room when I went to get him. I assumed you two had decided to head home."

Olivia groaned. What had her idiot brother done now? She knew he didn't like hospitals, but for him to leave before he could get treated for a serious issue? That was a new low, even for him.

"Are you sure you haven't seen him?" her stepfather asked. She shook her head in response.

"Don't worry, Doc, I'll go find him. I'll use my twin powers and everything." She tried to reassure him, and herself, by grinning. But deep down, Olivia was a bit worried. Liam couldn't have gotten that far, right? But why would he leave? What if he had hurt himself even more?

She said goodbye to her stepfather as she exited the hospital. Today was not at all turning out like she expected. Once again, Liam was causing problems. And once again, she was going to have to fix his mistakes. Ah, the joys of being a twin.


	2. Book 1: Chapter 2

When Liam returned home around midnight, Olivia was waiting on the couch, reading one of her textbook. The girl had only spent about 20 minutes looking for her brother before deciding that it was too dark to carry on. Her twin should know his way home well enough. Plus Garrett had a truck, so maybe Liam had called him for a pickup. She called her mom, who was only too happy to get her daughter from the hospital, especially after Olivia fed her a story about bringing her stepfather some dinner. Her mom had made sure to ask where Liam was, and Olivia had made up some story about him going out with the team to celebrate tryouts or whatever. She didn't know why exactly she felt the need to cover for Liam (as far as Olivia knew, he wasn't even doing anything that needed to be covered), but she did it anyway.

She had spent the evening working through her homework, stopping only to eat, go to the bathroom, and check her phone for missed calls from Liam (none of which appeared). So when he finally did arrive, she was pretty peeved about having to cover for him, especially since she had no idea where he really was. Liam came through the front door and limped into the kitchen, presumably looking for something to eat. Olivia decisively snapped her book closed and set it on the coffee table before following her brother into the kitchen. He was just opening up the fridge and sticking his head in when she loudly cleared her throat, causing him to spin around. He was staring at her with wide, frightened eyes, and she almost felt bad for scaring him. Almost.

"Nice of you to show up, big brother," she drawled, examining his appearance in the dim refrigerator light. He was shoeless, there was blood on his left forearm, leaves stood at attention in his hair, and he looked totally exhausted. "What the hell happened to you? Did you get kidnapped or something?"

Liam looked down at himself before quickly looking back up at Olivia, the fear on his face completely replaced by panic. "Oh, um, nothing happened. I just, um, went wandering in the woods and I tripped and fell and I guess I got hurt and..."

Olivia cut his rambling off by lifting her hand, palm facing him. "You know what? I don't really want to know. I'm just going to assume it was some sort of lacrosse initiation nonsense." Glancing him over one last time, she rolled her eyes. "You look absolutely awful, by the way. I'm going to bed. Night, Liam."

* * *

The next morning, Olivia found herself sitting next to Mason on the bus, sans Liam. He'd still been sleeping when she was getting ready for school, and she yelled for him to wake up tons of time. But eventually she had to get going or she was going to be late. Hopefully he'd be able to get a ride from one of their parents, plus an additional lecture about him needing to become a responsible adult. That was a particular favorite discussion topic of their mother's, considering she was a child and teen psychologist with her own practice in downtown Beacon Hills. She often worked with the sheriff's department on cases featuring juveniles.

She didn't say much on the bus ride, content to let Mason and Garrett and Violet - Garrett's girlfriend that Olivia hadn't really formed an opinion of yet - discuss their weekend plans. Olivia was personally intending to spend the weekend relaxing after the shock that returning to public school had brought. She didn't think she'd have any homework, as she'd been motoring through it all week. Beacon Hills High was certainly not as mentally stimulating as Devenford Prep had been. It was child's play, really. It was almost distressing in its simplicity.

"I'm not watching another movie on a Friday night," Garrett remarked as the four of them stepped off the bus. They had finally made it to school, none too soon for Olivia. Violet chuckled in agreement and Olivia rolled her eyes. "Mason, there's gotta be something going on."

"Dude, you remember we're freshman, right?" Mason replied, side-eyeing his friend, "We just got off a school bus. We're not exactly going to be hitting the clubs until 4 AM."

"Okay," Violet sighed, "Movie at your place. 9." Mason shrugged in acquiescence.

Their planning process completely ignored Olivia, and she was fine with that. She was only close to Mason anyway, and she had no desire to spend more time with the insufferable couple than was necessary. Thankfully, said couple finally walked away, and Olivia felt like she could breathe again.

She turned to speak to Mason, but she was cut off by the arrival of Liam, who was panting heavily.

"Hey, Liam, why weren't you on the bus?" Mason asked.

"I ran," Liam replied.

"Why didn't you ask Mom or Doc for a ride?" Olivia inquired, brows furrowed in confusion. Sure, her brother liked athletics, but this was ridiculous.

"You ran three miles to school?" Mason completely ignored her question. Of course. Even though they were friends, Liam was his _best_ friend, and was therefore his priority.

"Yeah. I just started running." And Liam ignored her too, of course. She huffed, annoyed by her apparent invisibility.

"So I guess your leg's okay?" Mason said, sizing his friend up. "And what happened to your arm?"

Liam glanced down at his arm, and Olivia rolled her eyes once more. "Supposedly, he was running through the woods last night and tripped and fell," she said, when her brother didn't see the need to answer.

Mason narrowed his eyes at the explanation, but Liam had adopted a deer-in-headlights look on his face that practically screamed ' _No further questions._ ' Still panting, Liam turned and leaned over some rails, and Olivia was honestly worried that he was going to be sick.

"Lee - you okay?" she asked, stepping towards him so she could rub his back. It was something their mom had always done when they were little and feeling poorly. She said that human touch helped to ease pain, a philosophy Olivia now subscribed to.

Liam didn't answer, and Mason stepped up to his other side. "Dude, are you okay?"

At that, Liam looked up, but not at them. Olivia followed his eyeline and saw Scott McCall standing by the school sign, looking at the three of them with a serious expression on his face. Liam looked terrified, which concerned his sister greatly. He started to panic, finally saying, "I'll talk to you two later. I've gotta get to class," before rushing off.

"We have the same first period!" Olivia shouted after him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What's his problem?" Mason asked her. She shrugged, raising an eyebrow.

"Does anyone ever really know what Liam's problem is?" she replied. Mason chuckled, but there was still some concern etched into his face. Olivia patted his cheek softly, smiling at him.

"He'll be fine, Mase. I'll check on him in class, and there's one of us with him for most of the day. I'm sure that, between the two of us, we can get this sorted out." Giving the taller boy a hug, she smiled at him again before flouncing off to class. There was something odd going on with her brother, and she was determined to figure out what it was.

* * *

Liam was even more frazzled - if that was possible - when he walked into first period. Olivia would know, because she somehow managed to make it there before him. The bandage was no longer on his wrist, and he was shaking like he was full of energy that he needed to expend as soon as possible. She didn't have long to worry about her brother, however, as their English teacher decided that a Friday was the perfect day to announce a project.

"You will be partnering up to write an alternate scene for a novel. I have a list of books for you all to choose from. Of course you'll have to read the book before you can write your scene." The class started to twitter, and Ms. Lincoln smirked at the mass of students before her. "Don't get too excited. I will be picking partners myself. And remember, the scene must keep the characters as close to their original selves as possible. Now, here are the partners."

Olivia made sure to listen to all the groups, considering she could easily miss her own name if she spaced out. None of the pairings interested her that much, since she really didn't care about these people. Although she was pleased to note that Liam was going to be working with Naomi Thurston, also known as the girl that had had a crush on Liam since the sixth grade. Meanwhile, she was apparently going to be working with...

"Annaleigh Winslow and Olivia Dunbar."

She knew exactly who that was, surprisingly enough. Annaleigh was a little bit shorter than Olivia, and a lot more wild, supposedly. The Dunbars had only been at Beacon Hills High for about a week, but Annaleigh was infamous. She was loud, energetic, and one hell of a partier if the rumor mill was to be believed. She had long black hair that she often braided part of, a few piercings, and a favorite worn leather jacket.

Deciding that she had to make the first move, Olivia grabbed her things and moved to an empty seat next to Annaleigh in the back row. She stuck her hand out, smiling at the frowning girl before her. "Hi, I'm Olivia Dunbar. I guess we're going to be working together."

Annaleigh looked up from where she was filing her nails, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "Hey, I'm Annaleigh. Although I'm guessing you've probably heard of me." She dropped her nail file to the wooden desk and tentatively shook Olivia's hand.

Olivia smiled even brighter. "Well, I have, but the rumor mill isn't always accurate. Besides, I'm guessing this project will take a while. So I'll have plenty of time to get to know you."

Nodding a bit, Annaleigh decided to look down at the paper that Ms. Lincoln had passed out. Listed on the sheet of neon pink paper were a bunch of 'classic' novels that they would have to choose from. The usual suspects ( _To Kill A Mockingbird_ , _Pride and Prejudice_ , _Frankenstein_ , and others) were present, and both girls sighed at the monotony. That was, until Olivia happened upon Arthur Golden's _Memoirs of Geisha_ , which she excitedly pointed out to Annaleigh.

"I saw the movie of this, and I've been meaning to read the book, and this would be the perfect time, wouldn't it?" Olivia cheered, grinning from ear to ear. Annaleigh had a hard time not smiling herself. Olivia's happiness was just infectious like that.

The two girls spent the rest of class creating a timeline for working on their project, at the blonde girl's insistence. When the bell rang, they gathered their belongings and left the classroom, chattering away about their favorite books. Both girls were big English nerds, and Olivia was happy to find someone that shared her enthusiasm for literature.

"I'm just saying, Elizabeth easily could have been a lesbian. I've always thought her and Charlotte had something going on behind the scenes..." Annaleigh was saying as they headed towards their shared History class. Liam was nowhere to be found, but Olivia didn't find herself minding too much. She thought that she could easily say she'd made a new friend, especially when Annaleigh sat next to her in the middle of the classroom, instead of at the back. They continued to discuss books as they waited for the bell to ring.

"You know how bromances can be. I'm not saying Darcy and Bingley are gay, necessarily, but they are _extremely_ close..."

Liam came into the classroom at the last second, barely making it into class before Mr. Yukimura started his lecture. He sat in the last empty seat, in the back by the window, so Olivia didn't get a chance to interrogate him. She made a mental note to do so at lunch, before she began to take rapid notes on what the teacher was saying. Liam wasn't going to get away from her that easily. She did know where he lived, after all.

* * *

Olivia didn't get a chance to talk to her brother until the end of the school day. He had skipped out of lunch, claiming he wanted to practice for lacrosse, and the only other class she had with him was Math. Of course, Math was her worst class, so she actually had to pay attention in order to not fail. So by the time the last bell rang, she was pretty fed up with how the day was playing out. When she ran into Liam and Mason at the bus, she smiled apologetically at their mutal friend before dragging her brother to her favorite seat.

"Okay, bro, what's up with you today? You've been moody and grumpy and silent...more so than usual."

Liam grunted in reply as he stared at his shoes. But Olivia wasn't having any of that, so she kept poking him until he snapped his head up to look at her.

"The hell, Liv?" Liam snarled, and Olivia stuck her tongue out at him like the high school freshman she was.

"What's gotten you in such a funk today?" she asked, this time letting worry into her tone.

He softened instantly, running a hand through his hair. "Sorry, Liv. It's just been a long week, y'know?"

Olivia nodded, secretly happy that he was finally talking to her. It was then that she noticed the phone number scrawled on Liam's left arm.

"What's that? Did a girl actually give you her number?" she teased, prodding him in the side. It was the only place he was ticklish, and he squirmed as his face flushed.

"I mean, yeah. Her name is Kira, and she asked me to go to a party with her tonight." He was grinning goofily, and Olivia melted. Maybe Liam really was okay. Maybe she was overreacting. She was prone to doing that, especially after Liam's last incident at Devenford. Sure, Liam was older than her (only by five minutes, but still), but she felt such a strong urge to protect him.

"That's great, Lee," Olivia said as she began to dig in her bag. She finally pulled out the copy of _Memoirs of a Geisha_ that she'd checked out from the school library.

"Thanks," Liam responded quietly as Olivia sank into reading. It was her usual cue that a conversation was over, and he was thankful for it. He didn't really feel like telling her about the weirdness with Scott and Stiles. It was probably nothing, and he didn't want to give her anything else to worry about. She had protected him enough for a lifetime. No, this was something he would deal with by himself. He'd be fine.

* * *

 _ **INCOMING CALL: Mase**_

"What, Mason?" Olivia said, irritated, as she answered her phone. She was trying to get a few chapters of Memoirs of a Geisha read before she went to bed. And there was no reason for Mason to be calling her at 7 o'clock at night. At least, no reason that wasn't likely to get her in trouble.

 _"Liam's at a party."_

"Yes, I know. And your point is?"

 _"We're so going. Get ready. Garrett, Violet, and I will be over to pick you up in half an hour."_ With that said, Mason hung up, leaving Olivia staring at her phone.

Frustrated, she tossed it onto her bed. She really had no urge to go to a party where she barely knew anyone. Besides, parties weren't really her scene. She'd rather stay home and get ahead on her homework. Annaleigh had said she was an extremely fast reader, and Olivia wasn't one for getting shown up in something, especially when that something was reading. Speaking of Annaleigh...

 _ **OUTGOING CALL: Annaleigh**_

 _"Hello?"_

"Hey, Annaleigh, it's Olivia. I hope you don't mind that I called," Olivia said nervously.

Annaleigh chuckled in response. _"I don't mind. What's up?"_

"So there's a party tonight and my brother's friends are dragging me with them. Parties aren't exactly my favorite thing, but I know there's no way I'm getting out of it..."

 _"You want me to come so you're not bored out of your mind?"_

"Please! I mean, I'm not trying to play on your reputation or anything, but you're probably the nicest person I've met since we transferred to Beacon Hills High, and at least if you're there we can at least talk about our English assignment and..." Olivia started babbling, much as Liam had the night before in the kitchen. Babbling was a big thing in their family.

Laughing, Annaleigh agreed to come to the party. Olivia thanked her profusely, promising to let her know the party's location as soon as she found out, and then hung up the phone. Maybe the party wouldn't be so bad now that her new friend would be in attendance. Now she just had to get dressed. What in the world was she supposed to wear?

* * *

Apparently, the party was going to be at Lydia Martin's lake house. Lydia Martin, as in the Queen Bee of Beacon Hills High School. So how the hell did Liam get an invitation? Olivia asked Mason as much, and he simply shrugged. Rolling her eyes at the lack of information, she made sure to shoot off a text to Annaleigh, letting her know where they'd be. Twenty minutes later, Garrett's truck rolled into the driveway of what was certainly a lake house, but uncertainly the site of a party. There were no lights on, and only two cars and a dirt-bike were parked out front.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Olivia asked Mason as she got out of the backseat, fiddling with one of the rings she was wearing. Mason pulled out his phone, and a few swipes later, he replied that this was definitely where Liam was supposed to be. Olivia frowned in response. Another car pulled up behind the truck, bathing Olivia and Mason and Garrett and Violet in the yellow-white glow of headlights.

The car turned off, and a call of "Olivia! Hey!" had the four turning around. Annaleigh was climbing out of the driver's seat of a black Subaru, smiling brilliantly at them.

"Annaleigh!" Olivia chirped as she headed towards her friend. They hugged quickly, before Olivia turned to introduce everyone.

"Mason, Garrett, Violet," she pointed each of her companions out in turn, "This is Annaleigh Winslow."

Annaleigh waved at the other three teens cheerfully, and they greeted her as well, though Garrett and Violet were surly about it. Olivia chalked it up to them having heard of Annaleigh's reputation, and so disregarded their grumpiness. If she was going to be forced into attending this party, she was going to make sure she had a fun time.

While the introductions occured, other cars started arriving in the area of the driveway. By the time Olivia and her friends made it to the front door, they were leading a group comprised of half the freshman and sophomore classes of Beacon Hills High. The door swung open, revealing a startled Lydia Martin.

Smiling, Mason said, "Hey. Uh, are we in the right place?" Olivia huffed at this. Hadn't she asked that question just a few minutes before? And hadn't he essentialy disregarded her concerns?

"For the party?" Garrett added. Both boys looked confused, and Olivia smiled a bit. This sort of thing tended to happen when people didn't get all the information before doing something.

Lydia seemed to grimace, but then she plastered a smile on her face as she replied, "Absolutely." The crowd cheered and rushed into the house. Someone plugged their phone into the speaker, and some random EDM song started playing, causing the party to cheer even more. Mason headed straight to the dance floor, pulling an eager Violet along with him. Garrett moved to the edge of the living room, casually observing. Meanwhile, Olivia scurried to the kitchen, where she hoped she would be able to relax as much as one could at a house party.

Annaleigh had decided to follow Olivia into the kitchen, a decision that the blonde girl was thankful for. The first time she'd gone to a party, a bunch of Devenford boys had refused to leave her alone. She'd been about to yell for Liam when a ridiculously tall brunette boy had appeared, scaring the crap out of the others. They had fled quickly, and the tall boy had disappeared immediately after. It was only during the next week at school that Olivia had learned that his name was Brett Talbot, and that he was on the lacrosse team.

As Olivia was reminiscing, a man came through the kitchen's back door, wheeling in a giant silver keg. Lydia came in through the living room entrance, and eyed the delivery man.

"Okay, I didn't order a keg of beer," she said snidely, "Especially not domestic."

"Somebody ordered it," the delivery man replied, "Are you trying to tell me that no one here wants to drink?" He nodded towards the clearly visible party raging on behind the redhead.

Lydia sighed and started to look around the kitchen. Eventually, her eye caught on a laptop open on the island, and on a wineglass resting on the laptop.

"Who put this here?" Lydia groaned, "This laptop is $2000!" Observing the kitchen once more, she saw Garrett sniffing an open wine bottle. She grabbed for him, saying "Oh, that bottle of wine is $400!" as she snatched it out of his hands. Annaleigh leaned over and whispered in Olivia's ear that Garrett was responsible for the wineglass on the laptop as well, causing Olivia to snicker.

Sighing, Lydia returned to the delivery man and asked him how much the keg would cost. He promptly handed her a receipt from his shirt pocket. Lydia examined the receipt carefully, eventually asking, "What's this extra $100?"

"I call that the 'Yes, you do look 21 to me' surcharge," the delivery man said smugly. Lydia rolled her eyes and sighed, turning to place the wine bottle by the fridge. Looking out into the living room, Lydia adopted a concerned expression. She held up her pointer finger to the man, telling him that she was going to get some cash before rushing away.

It was then that Garrett approached the delivery man, pulling out his wallet. "I opened the wine. I should probably pay for the keg," he admitted. He handed some cash to the delivery man, who didn't even count it before setting the keg on the ground and leaving the way he came in. After that, Garrett left the kitchen, not even looking at the wine bottle or keg as he left.

"So...that was weird, right?" Olivia asked Annaleigh, who was staring at her phone.

"Wait, what?" Annaleigh said, looking up, "I stopped paying attention."

"Of course you did."

The song playing changed to something that sounded, to Olivia, like the previous song but in a different chord. Music wasn't exactly her forte, honestly. But Annaleigh's face lit up, and she grabbed Olivia's hand.

"I love this song!" the brunette girl cheered, "Let's go dance!"

She dragged Olivia into the living room as she completely disregarded the blonde's multitudinous complaints. It took a few minutes, but eventually Olivia stopped complaining and actually started dancing. Other than a few boys being perverts and trying to get her to grind on them, nothing bad would happen here, right? Of course not, she decided. For once, she was going to get out of her own head and let loose. That's what high school was for, or so she had always heard. What could go wrong?

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ _I'm still not super-happy with how the chapter came out, but here it is. Chapter 3 will be out in exactly a week. Come check out my tumblr (commandercatbug), where you can see a lot more about Olivia and Annaleigh!_


	3. Book 1: Chapter 3

Around 11 PM, Olivia and Annaleigh decided to leave the party. It hadn't been particularly exciting; in fact, it had actually been rather lame. There hadn't been enough drama, which Annaleigh claimed was the key component of any high school 'shindig'. (Neither of them said anything about the boy that Annaleigh had chewed out after spilling his drink on Olivia, or about the boy that had wrongly told them that girls couldn't be nerds.)

Annaleigh drove Olivia home and decided to spend the night. As it turned out, Annaleigh always kept a change of clothes in the trunk of the car. They had a fun night, discussing what they'd both already read of their assigned book for English, as well as discussing the Beacon Hills High gossip. None of the gossip was particularly relevant to Olivia, but it was all interesting anyway. There was just something about gossip that helped her unwind. Well, as long as it wasn't about her. But gossip about other people? That was totally fair game. Olivia didn't see herself as much of a gossiper, and she didn't really see anything wrong with indulging in it every now and then. And it sure was nice to have a female friend again. She hadn't had one of those since Naomi.

"So I heard some girls in the bathroom talking about your brother," Annaleigh said as she dug through Olivia's box of nail polish. Olivia, who was in the middle of painting her nails with a plum-colored polish, hummed in acknowledgement. "They were saying that he was really hot. Apparently his butt is 'to die for!'"

Olivia snorted at Annaleigh's impression. "I used to hear that a lot at Devenford. Straight girls love lacrosse boys. It's a fact."

Annaleigh raised an eyebrow. "Are you included in that group? Any lacrosse boy ever caught your eye?"

Flushing, Olivia started to paint her toes so she wouldn't have to look at her friend. "I mean, I guess. I used to have to go to practices with Liam. Lacrosse boys are big fans of running around with their shirts off. At least, they are at Devenford."

"But I'm guessing there's more to your blush than that," Annaleigh prodded.

"So, you're not wrong...but I don't really want to talk about it right now," Olivia said, sighing, "Is that okay?"

Smiling softly, Annaleigh nodded. "Of course. I get it. Boys can be dumb. I'm here when you're ready to open up, okay?"

Olivia looked up at the other girl, smiling softly as well. "Thanks."

* * *

The Monday after the party, Olivia found herself standing at her locker, reviewing her homework. She wasn't too sure about her answers for her math assignment. Neither Dunbar was particularly good at the subject, so asking Liam hadn't been an option, especially since she hadn't seen him all weekend. He'd been absent at the party, and as far as she knew, he hadn't come home after. She made the assumption that he decided to spend the weekend at Mason's, a common occurrence. Neither of them had been on the bus that morning, so she guessed that Mrs. Hewitt was giving them a ride.

As she reconsidered her work on problem #7, Olivia felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to find Lydia Martin standing behind her, a polite but strained smile on the redhead's face. Olivia hadn't spoken a word to the girl before, not even at Friday's party. So this was certainly not something she'd expected.

"Oh, um, hi Lydia," Olivia said hesitantly.

"You're Liam Dunbar's sister. Olivia, right?" Lydia asked, skipping the pleasantries.

"Yeah," Olivia answered, looking down at her shoes, "Look, if this is about those tweets from Friday night, I can explain..."

Lydia held her hand up, and Olivia closed her mouth immediately. "I don't care about any tweets. What I care about is what you can tell me about your brother."

"What do you want to know? Why do you want to know anything about a freshman? I mean, I know he's on the lacrosse team and I know you're like eerily invested in the team because I've heard things and..."

"Freshman - stop talking," Lydia snapped and Olivia did exactly that. She really needed to work on the whole babbling thing. "I want to know if I have to worry about him hurting my friends."

Olivia cocked her head, her face adopting an inquisitive look. "What do you mean?"

"Scott's decided to...take Liam under his wing, so to speak," Lydia explained, crossing her arms, "I need to know if he's going to cause Scott problems."

"He shouldn't, I don't think. My brother's awesome," Olivia replied awkwardly, "As long as you don't get him too angry. He has some...issues with that." She scowled. "But I'm sure you've heard the rumors about all of that."

Lydia smiled wryly. "Oh yes, I've heard. Thank you." As quickly as she arrived, the queen of Beacon Hills High left, leaving a perplexed Olivia in her wake. "And you got that problem wrong! The answer is 9x-5!"

"Was that Lydia Martin?" asked an approaching Annaleigh. Olivia nodded. "What did she want?"

"Apparently my brother's become friends with Scott McCall? She wanted to know if she had to worry, I guess. And it seems that she's good at math, because she solved this problem for me." Olivia showed Annaleigh her math homework, and Annaleigh agreed with Lydia's solution.

"How long was she looking at it?" Annaleigh inquired.

"Maybe 30 seconds?" Olivia replied. Lydia couldn't have been standing behind her for very long.

"Okay. That's weird."

Olivia nodded. "I know, right?"

Annaleigh just shrugged before looping her arm around Olivia's. "Enough of this. Let's get to class. I want see what Ms Lincoln has to say about that poem we had to read. I personally think that it was a little too heavy-handed with metaphor, but I liked the part about..."

* * *

A few weeks after the weird conversation with Lydia, Annaleigh asked Olivia to pick up her sketchbook from the art room at lunch. She would have done it herself, but she had managed to get a lunch detention after being late to school for the third day in the row. Olivia was happy to oblige, considering she hadn't really made any more friends at school. She could sit with Liam, but Garrett and Violet had been getting on her nerves more and more as of late. They were always whispering and laughing and looking down their noses at her. There was no way she was getting through that without Annaleigh's help.

Olivia opened the art room door, only to find Lydia and Stiles' girlfriend. Lydia was sitting on a stool in front of an easel, her pencil poised over a large piece of blank white paper. Stiles' girlfriend, who Olivia had eventually learned was named Malia, had her head leaning over Lydia's left shoulder. She would almost say that Malia was draped over Lydia's form.

"Um...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...interrupt or anything," Olivia said. Malia and Lydia turned to her, eyes wide in surprise. Olivia blushed, not used to attention being on her. "I'll just...go then."

"I better not hear any rumors about this, freshman," Lydia threatened, "Because you have no idea what you're seeing."

"Seeing?" Olivia tried to laugh but it came out awkward and forced. "I didn't see anything! I don't know what you're talking about!"

Lydia hummed thoughtfully, then nodded. "You're dismissed."

Nodding rapidly, Olivia turned quickly on her heels and left the room. Annaleigh's sketchbook would have to wait. She did not need to get on Lydia's bad side. Especially by outing whatever it was that Lydia was up to with her friend's girlfriend. Her plan was to stay as far away from drama as possible. And what she'd stumbled upon in the art room? That was probably going to be drama.

* * *

"Okay, I'm telling you, something is seriously wrong with your brother."

Olivia turned around to look at Mason, who was fiddling with the straps of his backpack. He had an intense frown on his face, an expression he didn't sport very often.

"So I don't get any sort of greeting anymore?" Olivia asked, almost annoyed at the interruption. She'd been working up the courage to talk to Alex from French class, the guy she'd been crushing on for the past week and a half. And Mason had just disrupted all of her progress. Even as she thought that, Alex closed his locker and walked away.

"I was going to go talk to him! Look what you did!" Olivia hissed, crossing her arms and giving Mason her full attention.

"Okay, Liv, I'm glad you're actually looking for a boyfriend for once," Mason ignored her huff of disapproval, "but this is serious. Liam's been hella spacey lately. Like, more so than usual. And I'm worried about the scrimmage."

"What are you talking about, Mason? He'll be fine. He probably won't even get any field time. He's a freshman." It was Olivia's personal opinion that Mason was way overreacting to a simple lacrosse game. Sure, she'd been concerned about tryouts, but she really didn't think Coach would start Liam tonight, even though he was probably one of the best players. Coach seemed like the kind of guy who really played up the importance of seniority.

"Did neither of you pay any attention to the announcements?" Mason looked extremely frustrated, like he was about to start pulling his hair out.

"I guess not, based on your tone. Can you please just tell me what you're going on about?" Olivia didn't often get irritated, but this conversation was certainly pushing her towards it.

"We're playing Devenford," Mason declared, and Olivia promptly dropped the books she was holding.

"Shit!" She and Mason scrambled to pick the books up. Thankfully, they were standing in front of her locker, so she was able to quickly stow them away.

"Where is he?" Olivia asked, looking frantic. But her question was answered soon enough, as Liam came storming past the two of them. Olivia slammed her locker shut, and she and Mason started to follow her irate twin.

"Liam, stop!" Olivia hissed, trying to grab his arm discreetly. She didn't really feel like making a scene. Mason, however, did not share her inhibitions.

"Liam, wait. What, no, no, no. Liam," Mason called from behind her. He was too slow to do any good. Olivia latched onto her brother's arm and tried to pull him back into the school. But he shook her off easily.

"Liam!" Olivia and Mason anxiously chorused as the Devenford Prep team bus came into sight. But the lacrosse player was not to be discouraged.

"Brett!" Liam yelled as one Brett Talbot, star of Devenford's team, stepped off the bus. He looked towards the three Beacon Hills freshmen, a scowl on his face.

Liam walked quickly towards his old teammates, Mason and Olivia close behind him. A crowd was gathering around the area, and in the back of her mind, Olivia thought that this was just going to fuel more rumors about the Dunbars' departure from Devenford.

"Ah, here we go," sighed a defeated Mason. Silently, Olivia agreed with him. This was not going to have a pretty ending.

Liam was wearing his rage face as he walked to stand in front of Brett and the rest of the team. It didn't seem to intimidate Brett at all, which made sense, since he had a good nine inches on Liam.

"I just wanted to say..." Liam paused, and Olivia was pretty sure that you could cut the tension with a knife, "Have a good game." He finished his statement by sticking out his hand for a handshake, and Olivia was almost proud of him. Brett and the Devenford team didn't seem to share her feelings, considering the fact that they started laughing. Brett was grinning unpleasantly, and Olivia felt a strong urge to punch him. She fought to suppress that feeling. This wasn't her fight.

"That's cute, Liam. Is that what they told you to say in Anger Management? Apologize, and everything's fine?" Brett replied, and Olivia saw Liam's left hand slowly curling into a fist. She couldn't blame him. Brett was being a complete tool.

"Please don't punch him," she muttered under her breath, knowing there was no way her brother could hear her. But she still put her wish out into the universe. Maybe something out there could stop him.

"You demolished Coach's car," Brett added on, because of course this giant of a boy couldn't be quiet.

"I paid for it," Liam said through gritted teeth.

"This is going very badly," Mason whispered to Olivia, and she nodded, not looking away from the scene before her.

"Yeah, you're going to pay for it. We're gonna break you in half out there. And it's gonna be all your fault." It was like Brett was asking to be hit, Olivia decided. He probably was, just so he could sue Liam for damages and ruin her twin's life even more.

Thankfully, the universe finally decided to operate on Olivia's behalf. Except the universe's chosen agents were Scott and Stiles, who Olivia was less than pleased to see near her brother. He'd healed up nicely in the past two weeks, but she still didn't like the two juniors.

"Woah, woah, woah, let's go," Scott declared as he latched onto Liam. The crooked-jawed lacrosse player started to drag her twin back as Stiles interceded with Brett.

"Hey, what's going on, prep students?" Stiles asked rhetorically, "Welcome to our little public high school. How you doing?" He stuck his hand out for Brett to shake, and the taller boy rolled his eyes. "Stiles. That's a firm handshake you got there," the junior joked, returning his hand to his side. "Uh, we're very excited about the scrimmage tonight. Uh, but let's keep it clean, all right? No rough stuff out there. All right, see you on the field." Apparently finished, Stiles turned back to Liam and Scott, waving his hands above his head as he declared, "Go."

Mason stopped staring at Brett long enough to watch the three lacrosse players leave in a hurry. But Olivia spent the entire time glaring daggers at her brother's former teammate. After a quick exchange with the rest of the Devenford team, Brett finally seemed to realize that she was standing there. His eyes lit up a bit, and he was smirking as he approached her.

"Hey, Olivia. How's it going?" he inquired, body relaxed as he looked her up and down.

"Brett," Olivia replied stiffly, biting her lip and staring over his shoulder. She wouldn't give him the pleasure of meeting his eyes.

"You're not going to talk to me?" She would almost say that Brett was whining if she didn't know better. Brett didn't care about her or anything she did. He just wanted to save face in front of his friends.

"Not if you're going to keep harassing my brother," Olivia said as calmly as possible, flexing her fingers. She could almost hear the small sounds of them popping, and it helped soothe some of the anger she was feeling.

"I can't let him get away with messing up Coach's car," Brett said, as if that was some sort of explanation, as if that gave him some sort of pass.

"You know about his disorder. You know he can't help himself sometimes. And you know he apologized." She felt compelled to hiss the words. Brett thought he was so much better than everyone else. She had no idea what she had ever seen in him.

"Apologized? That's not enough for the team. We have to protect our own." Brett's furrowed brow was the only thing that conveyed how he felt about the Liam situation.

"He used to be 'one of your own'. I was, too," Olivia said softly.

"Liv, come on." Brett's voice became soft, too, and it almost seemed like he cared. Almost.

"Good luck with the scrimmage, Brett." Turning away, Olivia fought every urge in her body that told her to hit Brett. She wasn't Liam. She knew better than to act on her anger.

"You're cute when you're mad, Olivia!" Brett yelled as she walked away. The softness was gone, replaced by his usual cockiness.

"You're a dick when you're trying to invalidate my feelings, Talbot!" The sounds of his laughter followed her as she headed back into the school.

"You know him? More importantly, why don't I know him?" Mason inquired as they made their way to the locker rooms. It seemed like the most logical place for Scott and Stiles and Liam to be.

"Because he's a jerk, obviously," Olivia declared. She fought the urge to stamp her foot.

"Yeah, but he's a beautiful jerk," Mason sighed, and she glared at him.

"That 'beautiful jerk' just threatened your best friend," she reminded him. He nodded absently.

"And he looked good doing it."

* * *

"Annaleigh, are you coming to the lacrosse scrimmage?" asked Olivia as soon as her friend answered the phone. Annaleigh laughed at the abruptness.

 _"I wasn't planning on it. You know I'm not big on sports."_

"Please come with me! I have to go make sure my brother doesn't kill anyone, and I would love some backup." Olivia hadn't been planning to go to the game, since she didn't think Liam would be playing. But after she'd seen Brett, she knew she had to go. She couldn't let Liam do this alone.

 _"Of course, it has nothing to do with the mysterious lax bro you're in love with."_

"I'm not in love with him!"

 _"In love with, in lust with, what does it matter? Yes, I'll go with you. I hear that Kira Yukimura made the team. I'm all about that."_

"Have you ever even met her?" As far as Olivia knew, they hadn't.

 _"No. But who am I to not support a strong woman sticking it to the man?"_

"You're kind of weird, you know that, right?" Olivia asked her question while giggling, so she hoped that Annaleigh wasn't too offended by it.

 _"Of course I do. I'll see you at the game."_

"Thank you! See you then!"

* * *

"I don't care if he's a foot taller than me," Liam said as he, Mason, Annaleigh and Olivia observed a shirtless Brett. "I think I can take him."

Mason snapped out of his trance long enough to give Liam an insincere response of "Yeah."

Liam looked back and forth between Brett and Mason, who was staring once more, and scowled. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What? Me?" Mason tried to sound innocent, but he wasn't fooling anyone. Well, anyone that was paying attention, as in Annaleigh. Olivia was also staring at Brett, but Liam hadn't noticed that yet. "Agreeing with you. I'm agreeable."

"You think he's hot, don't you?" Liam accused, causing Mason to adopt an affronted expression.

"No! No. Not at all. No way," Mason said, trying to defend himself but failing miserably. Giving up, he admitted, "Maybe. Yeah, maybe a little. But so does Olivia!"

That was enough to wake Olivia out of her trance, as her friends and brother focused on her. Annaleigh was smiling wickedly, Mason was smirking at his deflection, and Liam was practically growling. All together, the effect was very disconcerting.

"Hey! You already know that I think he's hot!" Olivia stated.

"Yeah, so? I also know you know he's an asshole!" Liam replied venomously. She just shrugged in response. There was nothing wrong with looking at an attractive boy. It wasn't like she was going to ask him out or anything.

"He wants to destroy me," Liam reminded his sister and his best friend, as if that would diminish Brett's good looks.

"I think you could take him," Mason said. Liam smiled and nodded. "And then you can give him to me."

Liam laughed and Olivia pouted. Of course her brother would be ultimately fine with his best friend dating his mortal enemy, but not her. No, Olivia had to follow a different set of rules. Not that she wanted to date Brett, now that she knew how terrible he was. But it would have been nice to have had his acceptance before it got Liam kicked out of school.

"No, no, just go out there and kick their smug prep school asses, man," Mason tacked on as his version of a pep talk. Liam agreed and the boys fist-bumped before Liam ran to join his team.

"So Liam doesn't want you to think Brett's hot?" Annaleigh inquired as the three remaining freshmen headed to the bleachers. They'd staked out their spot 45 minutes ago, some of the first people to arrive at the field.

"Yeah. I mean, Brett and I have a history, so it makes sense. But he doesn't need to be so protective all the time," Olivia muttered as she sat down on the blanket they had laid out. Annaleigh sat on her right side, Mason on her left, and both of them were extremely dialed into the conversation.

"You two have a history? No, really?" Mason drawled sarcastically. Annaleigh reached across Olivia to smack his leg, and he yelped. "Hey!"

"I may or may not have been the catalyst for Liam getting kicked out of Devenford," Olivia admitted sheepishly. Obviously this was news for her new friend, but apparently it was news to Mason as well.

"What did you do?"

"I met Brett at the first party of the school year, when he scared a bunch of creeps away from me. We talked and flirted and exchanged numbers. We texted for a while, and then he invited me to a lacrosse party. Liam wasn't going because he had to study for a test and our parents had grounded him.

"So we went to the party and we made out. But then he completely ignored me for the rest of the event. He even went so far as to flirt with the cheer captain right in front of me. I was so pissed, I ended up catching a ride home with someone else. Then, I guess he was talking about me in the locker room before practice the following Monday. Liam was pissed, especially since he didn't even know that Brett and I had gone to the party together. You know how irrational he gets, particularly when it comes to me.

"The two of them kept getting into fights, on and off the lacrosse field. Eventually, Liam got benched for the rest of the season because he was consistently the instigator, and because Brett has the Devenford staff wrapped around his finger. Liam was obviously furious, so he completely messed up the coach's car. And that's when he got kicked out. My parents said that I could stay at Devenford, because Liam didn't tell them why he was fighting with Brett. But I couldn't do that, since the whole thing was my fault. So now we're here."

Annaleigh and Mason listened intently to Olivia's story. When it was finished, they wrapped their arms around their friend, who was currently trying her best to not cry. She didn't like to think about how she was ultimately responsible for possibly ruining her chances at a good future. It was easier most of the time to blame Liam for it all. She knew that made her a terrible person, but she couldn't help it.

"So not only did Brett contribute to Liam getting kicked out, but he was also a dick to you?" Annaleigh asked, and Olivia nodded. "Do you want me to kick his ass? I don't care that's he's like a foot taller than me. I'll fight him."

Olivia laughed at that. "No, it's okay. I'm just hoping that our team wipes the floor with him tonight. That would definitely make Liam and I feel a lot better."

Violet waved at them at the bottom of the bleachers, and Olivia clammed up. She didn't want the other girl to know about her past. She didn't like her, and wouldn't put it past her to spread rumors about Olivia fraternizing with the enemy. (Okay, maybe she was being a little dramatic, but that would help her when she was on Broadway someday.)

* * *

Every time someone from Devenford (oftentimes Brett) touched Liam, Olivia felt uncharacteristically angry. Her brother might get seriously hurt tonight, all because of something she'd inadvertently started. In fact, a lot of Beacon Hills High players were getting mowed down by Devenford players. Scott and Stiles even had to keep Liam from getting into a fight on the field, which did not bode well.

Annaleigh cheered exceptionally loud when Kira made her first shot of the night, and booed the loudest when Coach benched her for not passing. "That's ridiculous! He's just mad because a girl did better than his boys!" she shouted, looking for all the world like she was going to go and fight Coach.

"Annaleigh, chill," Olivia said, laughing at her friend's antics, "He's the one that put her on the team. He obviously wants her to do well."

"He's probably regretting it. Typical patriarchal bullshit," Annaleigh muttered, and Olivia patted her on the shoulder.

Things came to a head when Liam collided with Brett, rolling over the other boy's back before falling to the ground. Everyone in the stands gasped, and the two boys started moaning loudly in pain. Both teams flooded the field, coaches yelling for people to stay away from the possibly injured players. Liam got up fairly quickly, but Brett wasn't so lucky. The Devenford star had to be carried off the field by a referee and an EMT.

"Do you think he's going to be okay?" Olivia asked, eyes wide in fear. She cared a little bit about Brett's well-being, but mostly she was concerned about how injuring him would affect Liam.

"Why do you care?" Violet said, her tone almost venomous. She stood up, and the other three students looked at her with confusion. "I have to go to the bathroom," she said, "I'll be right back." Mason nodded as she left, but Olivia was too focused on what was happening with her brother, and Annaleigh was busy texting someone.

"Do you think they're going to let Liam keep playing?" Olivia asked.

"Are they even going to finish the game?" Mason replied with his own question. They sat on the bleachers for another few minutes before a police deputy came out on to the field and announced that the game was canceled. Grumbling, the crowd began to pack up their stuff and head out to the parking lot.

"What do you think happened?" Mason asked, and Annaleigh spoke up for the first time in a while.

"According to Twitter, someone tried to murder Scott McCall in the locker rooms," she said, rather nonchalant about the whole thing.

"What?" Mason and Olivia chorused in shock, giving Annaleigh their full attention.

"Yeah, some girl was inside going to the bathroom when she heard the police bringing someone out of the locker room in handcuffs. Apparently the person tried to strangle him."

"Is he okay?"

"McCall's fine," Annaleigh answered eventually, after scrolling through her Twitter feed, "Not even a scratch on him, supposedly."

"What in the world?" Olivia said, surprised, "How do you almost get strangled and come out perfectly fine?"

"Man, I don't know. But can I take you home now?" Annaleigh asked, pocketing her phone, "I'm technically not even supposed to be here."

"Annaleigh, are you grounded again?" Olivia groaned. The girl in question nodded sheepishly. She often got grounded for all the trouble she got herself in. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Like I was gonna miss a chance to hang out with you and scope out cute people?" Annaleigh raised her eyebrow, smirking. Sighing, Olivia pulled out her phone to check if Liam had texted her about needing a ride. Before the game, he'd said he would get a ride with someone from the team, but she wasn't sure if that had changed. But there was nothing from Liam, so she put her phone back in her purse.

"Yeah, we can go. Are you coming with us, Mase?"

"Nah. My mom's coming to get me. I'll see you on the bus tomorrow, Liv," he said, waving them off.

"Bye!" the two girls called as they walked to Annaleigh's car. The car ride was mostly quiet as they drove through the darkened streets of town. Annaleigh tapped her fingers against the steering wheel to the beat of whatever was on the radio. Meanwhile, Olivia was trolling Facebook and Twitter for any updates on the situation at the school.

They were almost to the Dunbar residence when Olivia let out a loud shriek, causing Annaleigh to slam on the breaks. "What the hell? Are you okay?"

"No! Violet was the girl that tried to kill Scott!"

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Annaleigh asked, maneuvering her car to the side of the road so she wouldn't block any traffic. When they were safely situated, Olivia showed her phone to her friend. The Beacon Hills Herald had already managed to get a small article out about the incident. Said article said that the police had already captured Violet, who was apparently one half of an assassin duo called 'The Orphans'. Garrett was supposed to be her partner, and he was still at large.

"So, what you're saying is that we've been hanging out with murderers for the past month?" Annaleigh asked with wide eyes. She generally tried to act like she didn't care about much, but her facade was nowhere to be seen right now. She looked fairly frantic, which was not helping Olivia's mood at all. She couldn't believe that she and her friends had been used to cover for murderous activities. What were her parents going to say? How was she going to explain this to them? Thankfully, she'd tried to stay away from the couple as much as possible. But Liam? Liam was going to be so screwed.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Okay, so I was gonna update tomorrow, but my one of my fave fics ("Just Say Yes" by MissUnderstoodXOXO) updated today, so I figured why not? Please leave a review, as it would mean so much to me!_


	4. Book 1: Chapter 4

Olivia was clutching her books to her chest, the near-personification of the heart-eyes emoji, as she watched Alex Knox dig through his locker across the hall. Annaleigh was standing next to her, chattering about "the socio-cultural implications of _Frankenstein_ ". At least, that's what Olivia thought she was talking about. It was a little hard to hear over the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears. Said heart started thumping even louder when Alex made eye contact with her and smiled. Dumbly, she waved at him. He nodded his head at her and closed his locker before joining his friends further down the hallway.

"Do you have any idea what I just said?" Annaleigh asked, snapping her fingers in front of Olivia's face. Blinking her eyes rapidly to help her focus, Olivia finally tuned in to her friend's one-sided conversation.

"No. I honestly have no clue what you were talking about. I was staring at my future husband."

Annaleigh snorted at her friend's answer. "You're over Brett already? That was a pretty quick turn around."

"I told you that in confidence," Olivia hissed, one hand releasing her textbooks so she could playfully smack Annaleigh. The other girl laughed the hit off and pulled her phone out of her hoodie pocket.

"Okay, so yesterday I was texting my ex-girlfriend Lola. We're still on good enough terms and we go to the mall with her current girlfriend sometimes. They're really good at finding deals on shoes. Anyway, she told me that Alex just recently broke up with Tasha Gold, some sophomore over at Brookston High, and he is officially on the market," Annaleigh informed her friend. She wrinkled her nose as Olivia let out a small squeal of delight. "Did you really have to do that?"

"Of course I did!" Olivia declared, trying her best to defend herself. "A nice, cute, single boy is rare these days. And he's smart. He's the complete package."

"Liv, you need to chill," Mason said as he approached the two girls, "Your thirst is showing."

Olivia lightly slapped his shoulder, faux-pouting. "Like you're one to talk, Mase. I've seen you at lacrosse practice. I'm honestly surprised there's not a puddle of drool under the bleachers."

"Speaking of talking," Mason said after he was done pretending to scowl at Olivia, "Have you heard from Liam today?"

"No. I thought you two were going running," Olivia replied as she finally started putting her books in her locker. It was the task she'd been about to do before Alex had entered the hallway. She was essentially a complete wreck around cute boys, especially when she was interested them. (Of course, Brett was an obvious exception nowadays.) It was her fatal flaw, so to speak.

"Well, we did," Mason admitted, leaning against a locker next to Olivia, "But he sprinted off halfway through, and I haven't seen him since."

"Did you try texting him?" Olivia inquired as she closed her locker. She adjusted her backpack so it wasn't bouncing all over the place as she turned to look at him. Now that she thought about it, he hadn't been in English or History today. She really should have noticed that, but she was too busy talking to Annaleigh, she supposed.

Mason huffed. "Of course I did. You think that wasn't my first course of action?"

"Hey, no need to get snippy," Olivia said defensively, "I was just asking."

After a moment of silence, Mason sighed heavily. "Sorry, Liv. I'm just concerned. Who knows what your brother will do sometimes, y'know?"

Olivia nodded as she pulled out her phone. She checked the time and typed out a quick text before returing it to her pocket. "Okay, if none of us have made contact with him by lunch, then I'll be worried. You of all people know how he gets. He's probably just hiding out at home, pouting and playing video games. He's been doing that a lot since Lydia's party."

Mason agreed with the plan and left for his next class. Annaleigh and Olivia linked arms and headed to their science class. The whole way, Annaleigh chattered on about the oppression of women in the sciences, but Olivia didn't pay her any attention once again. She knew she was being a bad friend by not listening, but she was honestly worried about her brother. He hadn't exactly been himself lately, and she was afraid that he might start lashing out again. He better not, because their parents would not be pleased. Neither would she be, for that matter.

* * *

"Liam, where were you all day?" Olivia asked Liam came home late that night. She'd had to cover for him with their mom again, and she was fine with doing that, as long as she knew what was really going on. But Liam hadn't confided in her yet, which was not behavior she was used to from him. They usually told each other everything, although that confidence had sort of collapsed after the Brett incident.

Liam was in sort of a trance when he walked through the door, but he snapped out of it when Olivia spoke to him. "I was at the bottom of a well," he replied seriously, and she couldn't help but snort.

"Do you need to start going back to the psychologist? If you're struggling with your depression so much that you're using metaphors for it, I think you need to be back on your meds," Olivia said as he plopped down next to her on the couch. She moved her French textbook from her lap to the coffee table, intent on spending some time with her brother. They hadn't had any bonding time since winter break, and even then it had been mostly her trying to talk him out of fighting people at Devenford.

Liam didn't say anything, so Olivia decided to turn on the TV. The first channel to show up was the local news, and Olivia watched with wide eyes as a reporter announced that Garrett and Violet's lifeless bodies had been found on the side of a road. No pictures of the bodies were shown, but Olivia still felt the urge to vomit. Granted, she hadn't really liked either teen, but it was weird to think that people she had seen just yesterday had been found dead in a ditch today.

"Did you know about this?" Olivia asked her brother, tilting her head to look at him. Liam was spacing out again, and she snapped her fingers in front of his face to gain his attention. "Liam, did you hear about Garrett and Violet?"

Liam shook his head quickly, similar to a dog after a bath. "No. I've been busy all day. Definitely haven't seen either of them today. That'd be crazy."

"Lee, calm down," Olivia said, placing a hand on his shoulder to steady him, "I was just asking. No need to get all freaked out."

Sighing, Liam massaged the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, Liv. It's just been a long day." He looked so sad and so stressed, Olivia had no choice but to wrap her brother in a hug.

"Chill, Lee. Maybe you need to go to bed."

Liam nodded as he hugged Olivia back. "I mean, probably. I haven't been sleeping well lately."

The twins released each other, and Liam got up from the couch. Before he could get too far, Olivia snagged his arm. He looked down at her, and she plastered a smile on her face. "I'm not going to push you, but I'm here if you want to talk. And I won't tell Mom or Doc, I promise."

Olivia was rewarded with a small smile from Liam. "Thanks, Liv. Night."

* * *

The next day, Olivia got up at sunrise. It was Saturday, but she had no time for sleeping in. She was going to be taking the PSAT at school today. The test was generally for juniors, but the school counselor had looked at her grades and told her that she was obviously prepared. Apparently, Lydia Martin had done the same thing just two years ago. Olivia felt extremely flattered when the counselor compared her to Lydia, who was easily the smartest person in school.

Of course, she felt extremely intimidated standing in line with a bunch of juniors while they waited for the test. She didn't know anyone and so had no one to talk to. She probably could have joined Scott McCall and his friends, but they only casually knew each other, and she was still mad at him for Liam's leg. So she ignored them, even when Scott saw her and waved at her. Meanwhile, Stiles scowled in her direction, so she was completely happy to pretend he didn't exist.

A lot of the students in the testing room looked stressed out, but Olivia was feeling surprisingly apathetic about the whole thing. If she didn't do well today (which she doubted would be the case), she had two more years to try again. Still, all of her calm disappeared the moment a girl fell out of her chair in the middle of the test.

"Sydney! Are you all right?" Ms. Martin said as she went to assist the girl. Sydney struggled, but eventually got up by leaning on the teacher.

"I'm okay. I just got kind of dizzy," Sydney said. Olivia personally thought the other girl looked more than kind of dizzy, but she didn't say anything. It wasn't her place to interfere in the affairs of someone she didn't know. At least, not when they had a qualified person to help them. She returned to her test and ignored the rest of Sydney and Ms. Martin's exchange. She only resumed paying attention to what was going on around her when Ms. Martin started yelling in the hallway.

"Get back! No! Don't come in here! Get back outside!"

The other students started to get up to see what the commotion was, and Olivia's innate curiosity was piqued. Yet, she didn't get up because the test was still going and she refused to waste any time. When the students were informed that they had to stop the test because the CDC was coming in, Olivia started freaking out. She prided herself on having an above-average immune system, and this situtation was definitely going to put a damper on her healthy streak.

After the CDC officials arrived, Scott went with Ms. Martin to help her take Sydney to quarantine. Meanwhile, the unaffected students stayed in the testing room with the other proctor. He was a pinched-faced man that didn't seem to be very interested in anything the students were up to. Granted, she wasn't particularly involved in anything the other teenagers were talking about, but then again, she wasn't being paid to essentially babysit like he was.

"Bet they're thinking smallpox," Olivia heard Stiles whisper to Kira and Malia. They were sitting very close to her but not paying her any attention, so it wasn't really like she was eavesdropping. She wasn't the only one that heard his comment, as was proven when the proctor spoke up.

"Not likely," the man said derisively, causing Stiles to look at him. "Smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1979. We've only managed to completely eradicate two viruses in history. The other was rinderpest. It killed cows."

This was actually something that Olivia knew, having learned it from her stepfather a few years ago. He'd been complaining about how three patients had come in that week claiming they had smallpox. She was always amazed by how ridiculous people could be.

"So we should be comforted by that, right?" Stiles asked, and she could hear the hopeful optimism in his voice.

"Unless it's something worse," replied the proctor. Olivia cringed. It had better not be something worse. She couldn't die yet. She had a lot of things she wanted to accomplish before that happened. She hadn't even had a chance to audition for a school musical yet.

"It's probably nothing," Olivia chimed in, and the three juniors turned to look at her. "Statistically, most CDC calls are false alarms. They're just hyper-vigilant. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. But I'm pretty sure we'll all be fine."

"Oh, Olivia!" Kira said in surprise, "I didn't even see you there!"

Olivia quirked an eyebrow. "You know my name?" Kira flushed in response.

"Yeah. Of course. I did take your brother to that party, after all. He talks a lot about you. Like, all the time."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Olivia considered this. It seemed like a plausible enough explanation, and she was really too tired to think it over. Besides, the trio of juniors had closed ranks again.

"Whatever it is, they're taking it pretty seriously," Malia said, "There are a lot of cars and trucks out there. Your dad's with them."

Of course, there was no way Malia could know that. She was sitting too far away from the window to see anything, let alone hear anything. She had to just be guessing. And yet, Stiles seemed to take her word as law.

"Hey, I should probably call him," Stiles said as he got up from his desk and went to the basket of phones. He started flipping through envelopes, looking for the one marked with his assigned number.

"Don't bother," the proctor said, scorn clear on his face, "They would have shut off any access to all outside communication by now. No cell service, no WiFi. No one starting a panic. Looks like we're all just going to have to wait here and see what happens."

Olivia would have been fine with that, except for the fact that she had nothing to do. But then she remembered she had packed _Les Misérables_ in case her mother had to run any errands after picking her up. She was immensely pleased with her own foresight, even if it was hard to read with everyone in the room chattering.

She gave up on reading about the time her history teacher, Mr. Yukimura, came to get Stiles. Apparently Scott was stuck in the bathroom and wouldn't come out until his best friend arrived. Olivia was reminded of Mason's comment from lacrosse tryouts, of how he would've sworn the two boys were dating. She smiled to herself. But her frown returned when someone from the CDC came into the room and told them they all had to get their blood drawn for testing. She hated needles more than anything.

Olivia ended up in line right behind Malia and Kira, but neither of them really noticed. She was kind of offended that she was so invisible to these upperclassmen, but she also didn't really want them talking to her. She tried to stay completely out of their conversation, but they were too loud for her to ignore.

"Kira," Malia said, causing Kira to turn around, "Do you ever get the feeling that Scott and Stiles aren't telling you everything?" Everything about the girl, from her stance to her voice, was awkward as all get out. Olivia almost felt sorry for her.

"What do you mean?" Kira asked, looking flabbergasted.

"Like they hide stuff." From Malia's mannerisms, it was obvious she wasn't pleased with her boyfriend and his best friend, even if she tried to hide it. Maybe she thought they were too close, just like Mason. Maybe she thought they were secretly dating!

Kira appeared stunned, and her face said that she was clearly trying to keep a secret. "I think if they did, they probably have a pretty good reason." Maybe one of the boys' parents was homophobic? Her money was on Scott's dad. She'd met Nurse McCall at the hospital and had been impressed with her kindness. And Sheriff Stilinski had been good and fair with Liam back at Devenford. All she'd knew about Agent McCall was that he worked for the FBI and was never around.

"Do you know what they're hiding in the bag under Scott's bed?" Malia inquired, obviously done with dancing around her question. Olivia raised an eyebrow at that. So, Malia didn't think the boys were dating...but what could they be hiding under Scott's bed? Perhaps they had a secret collection of Playboy magazines? She'd found Liam's stash last year while looking in his room for a book she'd loaned him. It had been extremely awkward between the twins for a few days, to say the least.

"What?" Kira scoffed, "No, I've never been under Scott's bed. Or in it. Just on it...wearing clothes." This poor awkward child. Of course, Olivia wasn't really one to talk. She'd probably act just like Kira in this situation. Although she wasn't sure why Kira was trying to hide how far she may or may not have gotten with Scott. Wasn't Malia supposed to be her best friend, at least according to Mason's gossip? Weren't girls supposed to tell their best friends everything?

The conversation was interrupted by a CDC employee announcing Kira's name as the next student to have their blood drawn. The employee tried to make small talk, but that all came to an abrupt halt when she dropped the needle and her suit started smoking. Olivia wasn't quite sure what happened, but the other CDC people started to freak out. The lady was rushed out of the building, and Kira and Malia took that as their chance to escape.

Of course, Olivia thought about escaping as well, because she was not at all excited about getting stuck with a needle. But she was a goody-goody at heart - something that Liam liked to mock her for - and she knew that she was never going to disobey an authority figure. Nothing was strong enough to get her to do that, not even her needle phobia.

After her blood was drawn, she was allowed to return to the classroom and continue reading. She also slowly watched as, one by one, her classmates started getting sick. It was eerie watching the classroom drain of people until she was the only one left. She wasn't sure why she had managed to be the only healthy one, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak.

Eventually, way after Olivia had become fully engrossed in her book, Ms. Martin came rushing in with a huge smile on her face. "Everyone's getting better!" the older woman said as she approached Olivia. The younger girl smiled back as she closed her book and placed it in her bag.

"That's wonderful news. Does that mean we get to go home soon?"

Ms. Martin nodded. "It does indeed. As soon as the CDC has released the quarantine."

The two women headed out into the hall, where students were starting to be freed from their isolation. People were hugging and clapping each other on the shoulder, and there was a huge air of relief all around. Olivia was sure she would have joined in if she knew any of these people personally.

"Liv! Liv!" A shout rang out from down the hall, accompanied by a cry of, "Mom! Mom!" Both Olivia and Ms. Martin turned to see Lydia and Liam rushing towards them.

The twins embraced, and Olivia couldn't help but start to tear up. "Why are you crying?" Liam asked, pulling back to look at his sister.

Smiling, she sniffled a bit and he chuckled. "I was worried. But I guess I had no reason to be. I didn't even get sick. I was the only one."

Liam cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. "Seriously? How'd you manage to pull that off?" Olivia tried to shrug, an action that was hard to accomplish with her brother still holding her.

"I'm not sure." She paused to consider the area around them. The hall was filled with students and CDC employees, and Olivia didn't see anyone else that she knew. "How did you get here, Lee?"

Liam flushed and, releasing his sister finally, he rubbed the back of his neck. "I got a ride with Lydia. She knew that you were at the school and she knew I'd be worried. Mom's still out of town, and Doc got held up at the hospital, otherwise they'd both be here."

Olivia wasn't sure how Lydia knew she'd be at the school to take a test intended for juniors, but that was an inquiry to explore at a later time. For now, she just basked in the knowledge that she was okay, and that she could finally go home. Today had been a much longer day than she had intended, and she had never been so eager to leave school before.

"Can we go home?" Olivia asked her brother, who grinned in response.

"Yeah. Lydia said she would give us a ride home. Why don't you go get checked out by the CDC people and I'll let Lydia know?"

Olivia nodded and headed out to the parking lot where the CDC was doing their final checks of students. She'd do pretty much anything to go home now, even if it meant getting her blood drawn again. "What a day," Olivia muttered to herself as she pulled out her phone. Wait until Annaleigh heard about this.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Kind of a boring chapter, but Olivia is getting suspicious. Don't worry, excitement is coming. Just hang in there!_

 _This chapter goes out to **dubonet**_ _,_ ** _lydamartin_** _, and_ ** _missunderstoodxoxo_** _on tumblr. Thanks for supporting Olivia and her story!_

 _Please leave a reviews, as it would make my day, and it inspires me to keep writing!_


	5. Book 1: Chapter 5

**A/N:** _In case anyone's wondering, this chapter covers episodes 8, 9, 10, and a bit of 11. Except chapter 10 is not touched on in any actual way._

* * *

"Are you going to be home tonight?" Olivia asked Liam when he finally answered his phone on Sunday afternoon. He had left the house before she even woke up this morning, and she had no idea where he'd gone off to. He hadn't responded to any of the ten texts she'd sent him throughout the day and she was feeling pretty irritated. She was tired of her twin keeping things from her, and she wasn't sure what to do about it. She'd been hoping they could sit down and have a heart-to-heart tonight, but that required Liam actually being here. Based off the past few weeks, that didn't seem very likely.

Her suspicions were confirmed by Liam's pause. _"Probably not. Mason and I have a lot of homework,"_ he finally answered. Olivia wrinkled her nose in frustration.

"That's funny, because Mason texted me a few minutes ago to ask if I was home. Apparently he wants me to help him bake something for his mom's birthday," Olivia declared. Why was Liam lying to her? It didn't make any sense. Then again, nothing about him seemed to make sense anymore.

 _"Oh, yeah!"_ The sound of skin hitting skin was audible over the phone. Liam let out a small yelp, which definitely concerned her. Had somebody hit him? What was he doing? _"Well...Scott asked me to meet him at the school. We're going to be running lacrosse drills with some other guys from the team. I didn't want to tell you because I know you don't like him that much."_

Sighing, Olivia accepted the explanation. It certainly made a lot more sense. "Okay, well, be careful. I'll make a batch of zucchini bread muffins if you want to bring Scott over after. I supppose I can try to get to know him if you're going to be hanging out with him a lot."

Liam released a startled laugh. _"Okay, Mom,"_ he said teasingly. He was always joking about how she took care of him. It wasn't that their mother was neglectful exactly, but she was often too busy to give the twins all of the attention they needed. So Olivia had stepped up and learned a lot about housekeeping and cooking at a young age. Rather than be bitter, she decided that it was a step ahead for her future. It was her opinion that life was better when you were optimistic about things. Who had time to be a Debbie Downer when there was so much to be excited about?

"Love you, Lee. Be safe," Olivia said. Liam echoed the sentiment and hung up. Something was going on with her brother, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

* * *

By the time Mason arrived, Olivia already had her first batch of muffins in the oven and had a second tin waiting on the stove. She was in the midst of making the batter for her 'famous' vanilla-lavender cupcakes, and yelled that Mason could let himself in. The boy came strolling into the kitchen and dropped his bag on the dining room table. He raised an eyebrow at Olivia's frantic whisking and considered saying nothing.

"What are you doing?" he asked, letting his curiousity get the better of him.

"If you must know," Olivia replied as she stared into her mixing bowl, "I'm stress-baking."

"Why? I thought you were over the whole 'Beacon Hills High is an intellectual wasteland' thing." It was a topic that had come up several times in the past few weeks, but the two of them and Annaleigh had come up with a solution. Olivia would take online courses through various websites to fulfill her desire to learn about anything and everything. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than doing nothing.

"I am. I really am." Olivia finally put down the whisk, slumping to the counter immediately afterwards. "It's just that...something's up with Liam. He's keeping things from me. He's never done that before."

Mason approached the other side of the counter, concern clear on his face. "Are you sure you're not reading to much into this? Maybe he just needs a little space."

"He knows he doesn't need to lie to me if he needs time away from me," Olivia said as she lifted her head. Her sad-puppy eyes were out in full force, and Mason felt sorry for the poor bastard who fell in love with her one day. They were going to be wrapped around her finger before they even knew what hit them. "I'd give him space if he asked. I'm just worried."

"I don't get what there is to be worried about. He's been acting pretty normal, except for that day he went missing. And he even had an explanation for that."

"But he's lying!" The words shot out of Olivia's mouth like a cannonball. She seemed surprised by their release, but she also didn't contest them. Mason kept his mouth shut. He knew Olivia well enough to know she'd explain soon enough. "I can't explain it. It doesn't make any sense. But...I'm his twin, Mase." She looked at the boy with wide, terrified eyes, and Mason felt the urge to pull her into a hug. "I know something's wrong. I know he's keeping things from me."

Coming around the counter, Mason held his arms open. Olivia fell into them willingly, clutching onto his sweatshirt with more strength than he'd realized she possessed. It made sense, though, considering all the baking that she did. They held each other for a while, Mason stroking her hair to soothe her. She finally managed to calm herself down by the time the oven timer dinged. Pulling back with a startled laugh, she tried her hardest to smile at him.

"Let's eat," Olivia said as she pulled on oven mitts. Mason let their previous conversation fall away. He had a feeling that this wouldn't be the last time they discussed it, and he would be there when she was ready. That's what friends were for, after all.

* * *

Even though they lived in the same house, Olivia didn't have a chance to talk to Liam until he came into school on Tuesday. He had wild eyes going on as he walked down the hall, as if he was afraid of something. Olivia didn't think that Mason, who had also wanted to talk to Liam, noticed. But he also wasn't Liam's twin.

"Liam!" Mason said loudly, startling his friend. Liam jumped back like a frightened animal, and Olivia would have laughed if she wasn't feeling so moody. "Hey. Am I gonna see you at the bonfire tonight?"

Somehow, the fact that tonight was the annual lacrosse bonfire had totally slipped her mind. Such a statement was ridiculous, considering Annaleigh had been talking about it for a week now. It was apparently the best school-sanctioned event of the year, and the other girl had practically begged Olivia to attend.

"Uh...I'm thinking about skipping it." Liam's response had his sister arching an eyebrow in surprise. Her brother had become all about the team recently, or so he said. So it didn't make sense for him to miss out on the team's biggest praise session. Seriously, what was up with him?

Mason seemed to agree with her on some level, based on his statement of, "You're not skipping it."

"Why not?" Liam looked way more confused at the shut-down than he should have.

"Because you're on the lacrosse team. Don't you have to go?" So Mason was confused by Liam's behavior, too. Olivia was sort of glad she wasn't the only one.

"I don't, uh..." Liam paused, looking to his right. "I...I don't think I can make it."

"What else could you possibly have to do tonight?" Olivia burst out without meaning to, "Everyone you know is going to be there!" Mason and Liam side-eyed her and she closed her mouth. She hadn't actually intended to get involved with this conversation. Oops.

"You're coming," Mason declared finally, and Olivia was relieved that the attention was off of her. "And we're gonna find you a nice girl that you can embarrass yourself in front of, and find me a lacrosse player. Because statistically speaking, someone on your team has gotta be on my team. All right?" Liam was looking shifty-eyed again as Mason talked, and Olivia was concerned. What was he so worried about that he wouldn't even tell them?

"Liam?" Mason said, when Liam didn't answer. A panicking Liam said that he would be at the bonfire before racing off, and Mason and Olivia looked at each other in confusion.

"Okay, so maybe something is wrong with him," Mason admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. Olivia felt the urge to say that she had told him so, but she went with a different approach.

"Maybe he didn't want to talk about girls in front of me?" she suggested, hoping that was indeed the case. She desperately wanted there to be a logical explanation for her brother's behavior.

Mason shrugged. "I mean, maybe. I'll try to talk to him about it later, maybe get a more positive response." He grinned at her look of concern. "Chill, Liv. He'll be fine. He has us, doesn't he?"

Olivia nodded, trying her hardest to plaster a smile on her face to match his. "You're right." The bell rang, and Olivia internally felt pretty relieved. Class was something she could deal with. Class was logical and calculated and there was almost always a right answer, if you thought everything through. "I'll see you later. I don't want to be late."

The two freshman said their goodbyes, and Olivia headed to her classroom. She saw Annaleigh ahead of her and hurried to catch up, thinking all the while that she really needed to get to the bottom of what was happening with her brother. And the best place to work on solving this mystery would be a place lacking inhibitions. Apparently she was going to the bonfire after all.

* * *

The bonfire was insane. The music was loud, people were drunk and dancing, and Olivia felt extremely out of place. She'd been to a few parties before, but generally as more of a spectator than an active participant. But Annaleigh didn't seem content on letting her get away with that tonight.

"C'mon, Liv!" Annaleigh cheered through the noise, "Let's get this party started!" Olivia was having a hard time hearing her friend, but she followed Annaleigh into the crush of students anyway. It couldn't hurt to let go for at least a little bit, could it?

Annaleigh started to dance and Olivia did her best to follow the other girl's lead. She didn't have to fake it for long, since she managed to catch sight of Liam and Mason. They were sitting at a picnic table, Mason drinking a soda and Liam pouring something into his own soda from a paper bag. Olivia knew what they were doing instantly, and she had to say she wasn't a fan of it. She normally accepted that teen drinking was a fact of life, even indulging in it herself now and then, but she was a little too worried about Liam to be thinking like that right now. She came around the back of the table, hoping that they wouldn't notice her. She wanted to assess the situation rather than dive right in. She had to be strategic if she was going to find out anything.

"Not gonna tell me to slow down?" Liam asked, and at first Olivia thought he was talking to her.

"Actually, I was gonna say 'Keep drinking'," Mason replied, "I think you should get drunk. And I mean stumbling down, fall on your ass, passed out with your face in a toilet drunk." Olivia cocked her head, confused. What the heck was Mason talking about? A drunk, reckless Liam was the last thing they needed in their lives. What if he got into a fight and got expelled again. Where would the twins go then? No, a drunk Liam sounded like a very bad idea.

Liam laughed. "Why?"

"Maybe then, when I ask you what's going on, you'll be too drunk to lie." Oh. That made sense. Maybe she needed to start giving Mason some credit. He actually had good ideas sometimes, although she was definitely still the brains of their operation. Liam didn't say anything, and Olivia took that as an admission that he was indeed hiding something.

"I'm not asking because I want to know," Mason continued, "I'm asking 'cause I wanna help. And because Olivia's worried. You keeping secrets is hurting her, dude." Olivia was touched by her friend's concern. Apparently Mason could handle this interrogation. She turned around and headed back to Annaleigh. If Mason had this under control, she was going to let loose. She deserved to enjoy herself.

* * *

In the week following the lacrosse bonfire, Liam started acting even weirder, if that was possible. Meanwhile, Scott McCall and his friends seemed to be much chiller than she'd ever seen them, which didn't really make sense to Olivia. She thought Liam's strangeness was tied to Scott's clique, but the group was acting like the complete opposite of her brother. So something was going on with just Liam, and someone had to get to the bottom of it.

She wasn't exactly proud of it, but Olivia eavesdropped on Liam and Mason's hangouts sometimes. It was a behavior she'd picked up only recently, but she had high hopes that her brother might spill his guts to his best friend, if not to his own twin. And it helped that their rooms shared a wall that was thinner than it probably should have been. Tonight, she was working on homework while the boys played video games in the next room. It sounded like they were playing Street Fighter, a game that Olivia was particularly good at. She kicked Liam's ass at it on the regular, although he'd become much better at it in the past month or so. This was confirmed by a conversation the boys were currently in the middle of.

"When did you get so good?" Mason asked in disbelief, "You been practicing? Or did you just suddenly get superhuman reflexes?"

Oh. That 'superhuman reflexes' quip was not something that she'd considered. Of course she hadn't. Things like that didn't happen. Imagine Liam as Spider-Man or Superman. That would be gold! As much as she loved her brother, Olivia didn't really see him as the 'hero' type. He was more of a sidekick, to be quite honest.

"Uh...practicing." The hesitation in Liam's voice piqued her interest for a moment, but she attributed to his general nervousness as of late. "Yeah, I've been practicing."

"And I should be studying," Mason said, and Olivia silently agreed. She personally believed that neither of the boys studied nearly enough. But Liam didn't seem to like Mason's declaration as much as she did.

"Where are you going?"

"Home? I got a History test tomorrow." Olivia felt like yelling that Liam had a test too, but she didn't want him to know she was listening. Talk about a breach of trust.

"Come on. One more game." Liam was almost begging, and Olivia was kind of offended that she was apparently not good enough company for him. She would love to play video games with him. They used to do it all the time in middle school, but they mostly stopped once they started going to Devenford.

"Yeah, you said that four games ago."

The room was quiet for a few seconds before Liam burst out with, "Study here! You can stay over!" Apparently he was way more desperate for company than Olivia had thought. What was he so scared of? Granted, their parents were out of town for the week, attending some conference or something. But the twins had been staying home at night by themselves for years. They liked to stay up all night, binge on junk food, and marathon movies of a particular genre. It was their tradition, and Olivia had been secretly hoping that they could hang out tonight. But Liam didn't seem to be down for that. "Come on. One more game. Just one."

"You okay?" Mason inquired. Olivia was wondering the same thing, obviously.

Liam hesitated before he responded. "Yeah. You're right. You should go." Maybe Mason couldn't hear the reluctance in Liam's voice, but she sure did. "I should probably study too. See you at school."

Olivia heard Liam's bedroom door close before there was a soft knock on hers. Mason stuck his head in, whispered "Keep an eye on him," and then left. So he had noticed after all. She was sort of glad that she had someone to worry with her, although she'd be even happier if Liam would just talk to one of them.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Oops, late update. Chapters are hard and I'm getting ready to go back to school in about two weeks. This chapter was supposed to be longer, but I didn't want to make y'all wait. Hope it wasn't too terrible, and I hope to hear thoughts from everyone! Make sure to check out my tumblr (catgrant) to stay up-to-date with all things Olivia!_


	6. Book 1: Chapter 6

**A/N:** _There will be more notes at the end, but I just wanted to point out that I changed Olivia's crush's name. It used to be Bryce. Now it's Alex. Carry on. Also, this chapter covers episodes 11 and 12 of season 4._

* * *

"Your brother is being particularly assholish today," Mason said when he stopped by Olivia's locker the next day. She and Annaleigh were on their way to lunch, and having had a particularly bad day thus far, she wasn't in the mood for more Liam drama. She'd already been scowling before Mason came over, and his statement only served to intensify her frown.

"Why should I care what he does?" Olivia asked angrily, slamming her locker closed. Annaleigh and Mason jumped back the slightest bit, and she almost felt bad. But she was just feeling so mad, something that she wasn't used to, and she was having a hard time handling it.

"What's up with her?" Mason muttered to Annaleigh as the three of them headed to the cafeteria. Olivia pretended to be engrossed in something on her phone. She wasn't exactly up for talking to anyone, even her best friends.

"This idiot Tyler has been hitting on her all day and won't take 'no' for an answer. And she got a B on a quiz in French, and Alex saw it," Annaleigh replied, "You know how she gets when she isn't perfect, especially when it's in front of someone she admires." Olivia hadn't realized that Annaleigh knew her so well. They were best friends, sure, but they'd known each other for less than a month. It was weird that apparently she was an open book and had never known it before.

"So now's probably not the best time to talk to her?" Mason guessed, and Annaleigh hummed in acknowledgement. Olivia felt bad for being so grumpy, but between today's failings and Liam being continuously closed off, she was at her wit's end. If she wasn't such a pacifist, she would honestly probably deck her brother. She was truly that upset with him.

Olivia was so caught up in stewing in her aggravation that she didn't see the person standing in front of her until she ran directly into them. "Hey Olivia," the decidedly male person said, and she internally groaned. Of course this would happen to her on today of all days. She really had no luck.

"Alex! Hi!" she chirped as she looked up at her crush. She went to tuck her blonde hair behind her ears before she remembered that it was tied back into a ponytail today. She kind of wished it was down, so that she could hide the blush that she knew was inevitably forming. Curse her bad hair day. Having curly hair was always such a struggle.

Alexander Knox was a good half-foot taller than her with perfect brown hair and deep brown eyes. He was leanly muscled, had the smile of an excitable puppy, and was probably the nicest person she'd ever met. It didn't hurt that he was easily one of the top students in the freshman class. He was basically amazing. Olivia had been smitten from the first time she heard him speak French.

Annaleigh thought the crush was both amusing and disgusting. Apparently she had dated Alex in middle school, if that could even be called dating, and said he had about as much personality as a stale piece of white bread. Olivia trusted her friend about many things, but not about this. She believed strongly that this boy had hidden depths, and she was dying to explore them. (No, Annaleigh, not _just_ like that. Stop being a pervert.)

"Are you going to the lacrosse game tonight?" Alex asked as Olivia tried to compose herself. Of course, his question almost melted her into a puddle of goo. He wanted to know what she was doing later! Why did he care? Was it just casual friendly curiosity? Was he trying to ask her out? Her only dating experience was that disastrous party with Brett. What would it be like going out with a decent guy?

"Um...yeah," Olivia replied, like a complete dork, "I always go to lacrosse things. My brother's on the team and I have to support him, y'know? Gotta be a supportive sibling. Because support is important, which...you obviously know." Her sentence petered off and she kind of wanted to hit herself. She needed to get a handle on this babbling nonsense so she could actually have a chance with cute boys. As her life was currently going, she was well on her way to being a spinster cat lady.

Alex didn't say anything about her chattering. Instead, he just smiled at her, and Olivia felt like she was going to pass out from happiness. He really was perfect.

"Cool. I'll see you there." Alex walked away, giving her a short wave as he went. Annaleigh came up beside her, and Olivia grabbed onto her friend for support.

"Did you see that?" She thought she might have wheezed the question, but she was too dizzy with excitement to care. Alex had asked about her! Alex wanted to know where she'd be! This was quite possibly the greatest day of her life so far! (She realized that it wasn't the best standard for all other days to be held to, but she didn't really care about that right now.)

"I did. Are you going to be okay?" Annaleigh chuckled, swinging her arm around Olivia's shoulder and smiling softly. Olivia's response was an excited squeak. Because of course it was.

* * *

Olivia didn't care about lacrosse. She really didn't. The rules were beyond her, as were positions and stats and the names of professional teams. But she cared about her brother more than anything on the planet. So here she was, sitting on freezing bleachers in the middle of winter to watch her brother kick his old school's butt at the first official game of the season. She was bundled up in a hat, scarf, gloves, and a sweater but she was still cold. Mason - who was sitting to her left - looked at her like she was crazy as she pulled a blanket out of her bag.

"What are you doing?" he asked, bemused. Sydney, the first girl to get sick during the PSAT, was sitting on his other side with a sign in hand and an equally confused expression on her face.

"I'm cold, okay? Don't judge me," Olivia barked, a little irritated at having to be here. She hadn't seen Alex anywhere yet, and she was suddenly worried that he wasn't coming. Of course, her number one priority was cheering Liam on, but why couldn't she flirt with her crush at the same time? That would be the ideal way for her to spend her night.

At that moment, Annaleigh finally joined them in the stands, teasingly waving a thermos in Olivia's face. Olivia eagerly snatched at the object, sighing happily when she opened it to find warm hot chocolate.

"You are an angel, Annaleigh Winslow. I am honored to have you as my best friend," she said emphatically as she poured some of the drink into the lid. Annaleigh laughed lightly, while Mason snorted. Both teens knew that beneath her genius exterior, Olivia was truly an extraordinary drama queen. Neither had any doubt that she'd be a huge star on Broadway one day, just like she dreamed.

"Oh," Mason said suddenly, "I talked to your brother earlier. He didn't tell me what was up with him, but he seemed a little more chilled out. He apologized for being a dick this morning."

Olivia nodded at the boy but her face didn't seem impressed. Mason pouted and turned to the field. She did the same, just in time to see Stiles fall during kickoff, or whatever it was called in lacrosse. She snickered as the crowd winced, and continued to do so as Stiles failed again and again. She knew that she should be supporting the team rather than secretly cheering for Stiles' downfall, but she couldn't help it. She just really didn't like that guy.

Olivia and her friends spent the first portion of the game in quite contemplation, although Mason lowly whistled under his breath every time a nice butt in lacrosse shorts caught his eye. Each time, Olivia and Sydney giggled while Annaleigh rolled her eyes. It was nice to have a distraction from worrying about Liam, as well as from low-key freaking out about the absent Alexander. Where was he? Maybe he'd thought about their earlier interaction and decided that she was a weirdo that he didn't want to be around. That would make sense. She'd acted so dumb in the hallway. She was such an embarrassment to herself. Why was she even allowed to speak?

Olivia was broken out of her spiral of self loathing as fans started to angrily boo. One of the Devenford players had scored the team's fourth goal right as the first half of the game ended. Coach Finstock was in a rage, throwing down his clipboard and shouting nonsense. Olivia took the break as an opportunity to go to the bathroom and get some food.

Halftime went quickly, and suddenly Liam was back on the field, directly facing off against Brett. The whistle blew, and Liam was off like a rocket, snatching the ball away from his opponent. He raced down the field towards Devenford's goal, and the crowd waited with baited breath. But a random Devenford player smacked Liam's stick with his own, causing the ball to fall out and onto the field. Half the crowd groaned as Devenford gained possession of the ball once more while the other half cheered as loud as they could.

Liam raced back towards Beacon Hills' goal to face off against the advancing Devenford players. Olivia grinned, proud that her brother never backed down from a challenge. She grabbed onto Mason's hand, squeezing it tightly. He squeezed back, not looking away from the field. Both teens squeezed tighter when Liam stopped in the middle of the field, frozen like a deer in headlights.

"Liam, for the love of God, move!" Coach screamed from the bench. His words seemed to work but not quickly enough, since the offensive Devenford players raced right past Liam without a fight. His head followed his opponents as they made their way to the goal, but he still didn't move. Brett scored a goal, and the Beacon Hills fans chorused in disappointment.

The game carried on with Liam doing well enough, except for the fact that Brett seemed to knock him down at every turn. Olivia knew the two boys were antagonistic towards each other - she'd seen it firsthand, after all - but this was getting ridiculous. At one point, Liam was splayed out on the ground with Brett towering over him. The two boys took off their helmets and seemed to be having an intense conversation, but Olivia couldn't tell what they were saying. She made a mental note to try and learn how to read lips.

Liam stood up and the referee raced over. The trio exchanged quick words, and Brett smirked before running back to his team. Olivia hated that his smirk made her insides light up, even when it wasn't directed at her, but there wasn't much she could do about that. She continued cheering for her brother, and booed every time Brett scored a goal (which was fairly often, unfortunately).

The game ended with a Beacon Hills loss, and she knew that Liam was probably crushed. He didn't like losing on a good day. But to lose against his main rival, in his first official game of the season? She'd be surprised if he didn't start sobbing when they got home. When Liam finally came out of the locker room after the match, he definitely looked upset. He gave Mason a quick hug, thanked Sydney for coming, and then the twins followed Annaleigh to her car. She had agreed to give the Dunbars a ride home since their parents were gone, and Olivia had even talked her into spending the night.

When they got home, Liam went straight to his room without speaking a word to his sister. He didn't even spare her a glance. Olivia wished his actions didn't cause her so much distress. She knew that he probably needed time alone to process the loss, but she also knew that she could help him if he just asked.

Rather than going about their usual sleepover antics, Olivia and Annaleigh decided to go to bed early. Both girls were drained from a particularly long week and decided that they'd have more fun tomorrow if they were well rested. They crawled into Olivia's bed and whispered their good nights. Annaleigh fell asleep within 5 minutes, and Olivia wasn't far behind her.

* * *

"Where are you going?" Olivia asked Liam the next morning. He had come downstairs with a pack on his back and a suspicious look on his face. He jumped at his sister's question, and it was obvious that he hadn't noticed her. She was hanging out on the couch with Annaleigh and watching _The Help_ , since neither of them had seen it yet. The two girls had agreed, upon waking up, that this was the perfect weekend to be lazy and ignore all their responsibilities. Their plan was to eat a ton of junk food, marathon a bunch of movies, and gossip about anything they could think of.

Olivia and Annaleigh stared at Liam as they waited for an answer, but he didn't say anything. He just blinked at them a ton, and eventually his sister turned back to the TV. "Fine. Don't tell me. See if I care," she huffed. All three teens knew she cared very much, but none of them said anything. The tension in the room was thick and almost overwhelming. But Olivia was too busy being hurt, and Liam was too busy being mysterious, to do anything about it. Annaleigh was worried about her friend, but she knew this wasn't exactly something she should get involved in.

Liam shortly headed out the front door, slamming it behind him. Only after the sound of crashing wood faded away did Olivia resume the movie. The two girls sat in silence, Olivia drumming her fingers against her leg as she shoved popcorn in her mouth. No one spoke until about halfway through the next movie. At that point, Annaleigh paused _Bridesmaids_ and turned to the other girl, staring at her with squinted eyes.

"What's up?" Olivia asked.

"I should be asking you that," Annaleigh replied, "Are you seriously going to let Liam ruin your weekend, just like that?"

Olivia sighed heavily, pulling her legs onto the couch and against her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "Ideally, I wouldn't. I would love to just brush it off. But you know how I am. I get antsy when secrets are involved."

Annaleigh actually only knew this because Mason had told her as much once, but she didn't tell Olivia that. Now was not the time for something so trivial.

"You know he probably doesn't mean to stress you out. Boys are just dumb and try to figure out everything on their own. He'll pull his head out of his ass eventually," Annaleigh said as she rubbed Olivia's back in a circle. Olivia hummed sadly in response.

"I guess," she said eventually, "Thanks."

Annaleigh nodded before resuming the movie. This conversation was far from over, but any progress was good in her eyes. Getting Olivia out of her funk was going to be a long process, and they were just going to have to take it one step at a time.

* * *

Olivia knew she wasn't supposed to be out in the woods, especially at night. Her parents had been very clear about that after all the murders around town in the past year. Liam had wholeheartedly agreed with their decision, something that didn't happen very often. He privately told her that he'd seen something out in the woods recently, something with red eyes and big teeth. It was just like the monster they'd encountered in the woods of their old hometown. Just like the creature of their recurring nightmares.

So she definitely knew she should be curled up in her bed right now, reading Les Misérables or catching up on _Gossip Girl_. But Peaches had gotten out when Olivia had taken out the trash, and the little orange kitten was certainly not an outdoor cat. She couldn't imagine leaving him outside all night, so she had to chase after him. He was her responsibility after all.

It was funny. She'd gotten Peaches at Christmas, just a little bit before Liam stopped really talking to her. She gained a charge just as she lost another. She supposed it wasn't really fair to call Liam a charge. He was her brother, not someone she'd been saddled with taking care of. Olivia was just having a hard time with all of this. She'd been intending to have a big heart-to-heart with Annaleigh tonight, especially since Liam had texted her saying he wouldn't be home until tomorrow. But her friend had been called away to her Aunt Betsy's farm to help take care of some goats, and now she was all alone.

"Peaches! Here, kitty kitty!" she called as she stepped over a tree root. One would think that a bright orange cat would stand out in a dark forest, especially under the light of a full moon. But one would be wrong, as Peaches was nowhere to be seen. Olivia walked deeper into the woods, still trying to get the cat's attention. She lowered her voice to a whisper when she heard leaves crunching in the distance, but she kept moving.

Eventually she had to pull her phone out and open her flashlight app once the trees started blocking out the moon. She scanned the area quickly, letting out a little gasp of relief when the light passed over something orange. "Peaches!" she cheered. But her happiness quickly turned to terror when she saw the shape approaching her beloved pet.

It was a man with clear wickedness on his face. He was grinning widely as he waved at her, and she'd never known before now that such a simple gesture could be so menacing. Peaches was halfway between her and the man, but as soon as the cat saw the large person, he yowled and raced towards Olivia. She scooped him up into her arms and started to back up, still facing the looming figure.

He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. He was stepping forward slowly, his body transforming before her eyes. His eyes turned a vibrant blue, fur encased his face, fangs sprouted from his mouth, and his fingernails lengthened until they could only be described as claws. He looked nothing like anything she'd seen before, and Olivia was terrified.

She kept moving backwards, gaining speed as she went. But then her ankle connected with a solid object, and she fell onto her back on the forest floor. Peaches sprung from her arms as she fell, racing away as fast as his little kitten feet could carry him. Olivia didn't blame him. She would be right on his tail if she wasn't fairly certain she'd just sprained her ankle.

Trying to get up, she scrambled for a hold on the tree next to her. But apparently this was the only perfect tree in the entire forest, because she couldn't find a knot or a branch or even a squirrel hole. She briefly considered trying to stand on her injured ankle, but the man was standing over her before that thought even finished.

His claws shone in the small patch of moonlight they'd found themselves in as he bared his teeth. Olivia felt tears start to fall from her eyes, and she made no move to stop them. Why should she, when she was so certain she was going to die? It was better that she express her feelings for as long as she was able.

The man shifted into a crouch, his eyes wild and his grin turned manic. She squeezed her eyes closed, silently apologizing to her family and friends. The claws tore into her flesh. Olivia screamed.

 ***END BOOK 1***

* * *

 **A/N:** _So this is a month late and it's not the best, but I blame college. I don't know when the next chapter will be up, because quite honestly school is already kicking my butt and I only just finished the first week. Thank you for reading, and I'll see y'all when I see you!_


	7. Book 2: Chapter 1

When Olivia finally regained consciousness, she found herself in a stark white, extremely stale, and scarily windowless room. It was almost clinical, but it was also nothing like any hospital room she'd seen before. There were no beeping machines, no bustling nurses, no uncomfortable paper sheets. She occupied a full-sized bed against a wall, and someone had apparently changed her into a nightgown. That in itself was a potentially problematic situation, but it was something she'd have to deal with later. First, she needed to figure out where she was.

A cleared throat in the background distracted her from examining her surroundings. There was a boy with a sly smirk and dark red hair leaning against the door frame across from her. He beckoned for her to come forward, and she felt the sudden urge to comply. As Olivia untangled herself from the blankets, he looked her up and down. "You don't look like much," he remarked.

Standing next to her cot, she placed her hands on her hips and gave the boy a similar treatment. "You don't look like much, either. Am I supposed to know who you are?" He looked familiar to her, but she couldn't place where she'd seen him before.

"I'm Fabian Baird. Also known as the guy who saved your life."

Olivia scoffed. This boy didn't look like he was much into saving damsels in distress. Not unless he was going to get something from it. And she certainly wasn't giving him anything he might want.

Fabian was abruptly shoved into the room, but he didn't tumble forward. His footing was sure, as if he had planned on coming inside the whole time. He was followed by a whirling dervish of a girl with brown curls and a leather jacket. She was grinning from ear to ear, and Olivia felt much safer in her presence.

"Olivia! You're awake!" the girl declared, and Olivia nodded weakly. She imagined this was what a zombie might feel like - dazed and tired. She was having trouble staying upright and found herself clutching onto the frame of the bed. The girl zoomed towards her and wrapped her in a hug, which left Olivia confused to say the least.

"You really shouldn't be out of bed," the other girl scolded lightly. Olivia had already figured out that much, but she was feeling too stubborn to do anything about it. The other girl lowered Olivia to the bed. She tried to protest, but the girl's curls ended up in her mouth instead.

"Nic, leave her be," said a third voice from the doorway. The girl - Nic, apparently - stopped her fussing and turned a bashful smile towards the older woman in the doorway. She was a kind-faced lady, with laugh lines by her mouth and glittering brown eyes. Her dark brown hair was tied back into a ponytail that brushed the middle of her back. But there was also a sharp air that seemed to surround her, one that declared her as someone to not be messed with. She was an authority figure to be sure. At the same time, she looked like one of the most huggable people Olivia had ever met.

"Sorry, Kenna," Nic muttered, getting up and moving towards the doorway. She crossed paths with Kenna, who was now approaching the bed with a maternal smile on her face.

"Hello, Olivia," the woman murmured, standing in front of the confused blonde teenager.

"Hi?" For some reason, that was only response Olivia could come up with in the moment. She'd have to kick herself for her idiocy later.

"My name is McKenna Nash, and I'm here to help you. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I'll be happy to answer them for you. But first, I need to ask you to lie back down. I have to make sure that you've healed up properly." Silently, Olivia did as she was told, returning to a prone resting position. Nic pushed a very interested Fabian out of the door, closing it with a click behind them.

"Why don't you ask me what's on your mind while I do your examination?" McKenna suggested. Olivia nodded and opened her mouth as McKenna put on a stethoscope. "So first, I'm going to listen to your breathing..."

* * *

"Where the hell is my sister?!" Liam shouted, grabbing onto Brett's shirt as he left the Devenport locker room after lacrosse practice. For a born werewolf, Brett looked way more surprised than he should have been. He should have been able to hear Liam way before he'd gotten this close.

"What makes you think I know?" Brett replied, shoving Liam away. He straightened his shirt and checked for any holes the other boy might have caused with wayward claws.

"She's missing! Your pack's scent is all over her room! If you didn't personally take her, then you know who did!" Liam had his finger pointed at Brett accusingly, and the other werewolf might have laughed if the new Beta didn't have murder written all over his face.

"Okay, well...there might have been an accident while your pack was in Mexico," Brett admitted eventually, hesitation clear in his tone. He really hadn't been looking forward to this conversation. In fact, he'd been hoping he could avoid it all together.

"What the hell are you talking about, Talbot?" Liam growled.

"She was running around in the woods during the full moon, and some Omega ran into her. He attacked. One of our Betas found her and brought her to Satomi. She'll be fine." Brett was trying to calm Liam down, but of course that wasn't going to work. Not when he was riled up like this.

"She'll be...wait! Did Satomi bite her?" Brett didn't reply, which apparently qualified as an answer in Liam's eyes. "What the fuck, Talbot?!" he snarled, eyes starting to glow gold.

"What were we supposed to do? She was dying, Liam!" Brett raked his hand through his gelled hair, frustrated with the conversation. He'd had a difficult practice, and he really just wanted to go home and sleep. But that plan had flown out the window as soon as Liam accosted him.

"Why didn't you take her to the hospital?" He sank his claws into Brett's arm, and the taller boy gritted his teeth.

"How were they going to help her? She was mauled by a werewolf!" Brett pulled Liam's hand off and tried to put some distance between the two of them. Of course, this only seemed to make Liam angrier, because that turned out to be possible.

"Scott's mom is a nurse there. She would have known what to do!" Liam punched the wall, cracking a brick and sending dust flying. Brett rolled his eyes at the shorter boy's extreme behavior.

"I don't know how you think we'd know that," Brett said, crossing his arms. Liam punched the wall again, harder this time, and a brick fell out of the wall. "Would you calm down, Dunbar? People are going to be suspicious when they see this tomorrow."

"My sister almost died!" Liam shouted, subtlety be damned, "How the fuck am I supposed to calm down?"

"You could start by taking some deep breaths," Brett said snidely, smoothly dodging as Liam swiped at him, "And maybe if you shut up for more than five seconds, I can take you to see her."

* * *

"Oh sis," Liam whispered as he walked into Olivia's guest room. It was apparently one of many in a guest house that belonged to a woman named Satomi Ito, McKenna had informed her during the examination. Satomi was the real reason that the blonde teenager was still alive right now. Satomi was also an Alpha werewolf, because it turned out that werewolves were real now.

Olivia was sitting in an armchair that Nic - who had eventually introduced herself as 'Nicolette Evans' - had brought in for her. She was reading through Satomi's bestiary, essentially a complete guide to the supernatural creatures in the world. This was to be the first step in her training, McKenna had informed her.

"I'm sorry, Liv," Liam said as he approached her. Olivia looked up at him, sighed, and marked her page with the length of ribbon attached to the book. She placed the bestiary, an old thing made of leather and weathered pages, on the end table Nicolette had also brought her. Other than that, she didn't move as Liam made his way over.

"What are you sorry for? The fact that...that I'm not human anymore?" Her voice started out strong, but petered off as she mentioned her predicament. It had been two days since she'd been attacked in the woods, and only several hours since she'd woken up. She wasn't surprised that Liam had taken so long to come see her. However, she'd been quite shocked when she found out from Nicolette that her twin brother was also a werewolf.

"I should have been there. I could have protected you." He was whispering again, but this time there were tears welling in his eyes. Normally that would have been a signal for Olivia to get up and hug him. But in this moment, all she wanted to do was remain where she was. Honestly, she was having a hard time even looking at Liam right now. How did you interact with your twin when they've been keeping a huge, and potentially deadly, secret from you for a month? There was no guidebook for this situation.

"You're right. You should have been there," Olivia said eventually, picking at her thumbnail as she spoke. Liam nodded, then realized that his sister couldn't see him. He crouched to the floor and made an attempt to look into her eyes. But she turned her head away and stared at the wall.

"Where were you, Lee?" Her voice cracked, and her chin wobbled a bit. "I needed you, but you weren't there. You're never there anymore."

"I was with my pack. We were in Mexico. We had to save Scott and Kira," Liam admitted. He was proud for having saved his Alpha, but he was also ashamed that he'd abandoned his sister. What kind of brother was he?

A loud crack sounded through the air. Liam put a hand to his cheek and realized that it stung. Olivia had slapped him hard. For anyone that wasn't supernatural, the force behind her hit would easily have left a bruise. For him, it would only hurt for a few minutes before it healed up. But the intention would still be there long after the pain dissipated.

"You should have saved me!" Olivia yelled, looking up at Liam. Her eyes were blazing gold even as tears streamed down her face. "I needed you! I was mauled by a werewolf! He came after me because of you!"

"What are you talking...my scent." The thought hit Liam like a freight train. Even though he'd been avoiding Olivia as much as possible lately, they still lived together, so his scent would have easily rubbed off on her.

Olivia laughed darkly, an action that shocked Liam. His sister had never been so angry with him, not even when he got kicked out of Devenford. "Yes, your scent. He thought I was a werewolf. He thought I could help him find a pack. And when he realized I was a human, he went into a frenzy." Liam reached forward to hug her, to hold her, to do something. But she kicked out at him and he stopped.

"Don't you dare touch me!" she hissed, and he'd honestly never thought Olivia would be able to muster up so much venom.

"Liv, I'm..."

"What, Liam? Are you going to apologize again? That's not good enough!" Olivia was yelling again, and Liam noticed that her claws were starting to come out. "I'm a freak now! I'm a monster, and it's all because you care more about your stupid friends than about your flesh and blood!" She sprang from her chair, launching herself at him with a snarl. "I'm broken and it's your fault!"

Thankfully, he didn't have to fight her, because McKenna and Nicolette chose that moment to come check on them. The two women raced to break the twins up. There was a struggle, but eventually they managed to pull Olivia back to a corner of the room, completely opposite from where Liam stood. The blonde girl was breathing heavily and was still wolfed out, but she had stopped fidgeting so much, so McKenna counted it at as a win.

"Liam, you should go," McKenna stated, and Liam nodded dejectedly. He exited the room as quietly as possible, wondering how he was going to explain this to the pack, let alone his parents. Oh God, his sister was a werewolf.

* * *

 _Shortish chapter but I am happy with it. Next chapter should be longer and will be out in 2 weeks._


	8. Book 2: Chapter 2

"Scott, we have a problem," Liam said as he walked into the McCall house. The rest of the pack was gathered in the living room, rehashing the last month so that they were all on the same page. The night before, they had delivered Peter to Eichen House. But they'd had to disperse immediately after so they could go to school in the morning. It had actually been at school today that Liam had first realized Olivia was missing. She hadn't been in any of their shared classes, which should have tipped him off. But it wasn't until Annaleigh approached him at lunch to ask where the hell his sister was that he realized she was absent.

"Liam, we're kind of in the middle of something," Stiles said, scribbling in a notebook. Liam rolled his eyes at the junior before giving all of his attention to his Alpha. Scott was looking at him with a small welcoming smile, and the Beta was struck with the realization that Scott would make a great dad one day.

"Yeah, well, I'm kind of in the middle of something, too. My sister's a werewolf, Stiles," Liam blurted out, causing the entire room to fall silent. The assembled teens stared at him like he was a sideshow attraction, and he probably would have blushed if he wasn't so concerned about Olivia.

"You're joking, right?" Stiles asked, a strange look on his face. Lydia smacked him on the shoulder, and his mouth straightened. In any other circumstance, Liam would have laughed at the pain he was probably feeling. Lydia was surprisingly strong for her size.

"Why would I joke about something like this?" The question was rhetorical, yet everyone still expected Stiles to say something. But he amazed them all and kept his mouth shut.

"You're going to have to elaborate," Scott said in a tone laced with sympathy.

"What else is there to say? My twin sister, my best friend, is a werewolf!" Liam was close to shouting, and he could feel himself starting to shift. He tried to rein it in, but he was still pretty new to all of this, and he certainly didn't have that kind of control over his powers. "Satomi turned her into a werewolf!" He quickly conveyed the details provided by Brett.

Afterwards, Scott stood up and made his way over so he could wrap the Beta in his arms. Liam gratefully slumped into them, suddenly unable to support himself. He hadn't realized how hard the situation was hitting him until this moment. He sort of wanted to cry, but he didn't feel like he could do so. Not yet, at least. He still didn't feel like he was a full-fledged member of the pack.

"What can we do?" Kira asked, approaching the two werewolves. Scott released Liam, and they turned to face everyone.

"Olivia maybe tried to kill me a little bit when I went to see her," Liam admitted, raising his shoulders almost to his ears, "So if one of you could go talk to her..."

Scott nodded, and Lydia covered Stiles' mouth with her hand before he could speak. No one needed him talking to a new and volatile female teenage werewolf. That was a recipe for disaster, to be sure, especially since Olivia already didn't like him.

"Maybe I should do it," Lydia suggested from her spot on the couch, "I've talked to her before, and she doesn't hate me, as far as I know."

"But you're not a werewolf," Scott pointed out. Lydia flicked her hair back as if she didn't have a care in the world.

"But I didn't injure her brother in his first lacrosse practice, nor did I turn him into a werewolf," Lydia reminded everyone. Scott ducked his head, blushing, and Kira latched on to him.

"Okay, so Lydia will talk to Olivia," Liam said finally, giving the older girl a thankful look. She smiled at him sweetly, and the pack returned to its earlier conversation.

Liam tried to dial in on the discussion, but he was having a hard time doing so when all he could think about was the look on his sister's face when she lunged for him. He'd never felt an emotion like that before, not even when he was fighting for his life against hunters, or when he was fighting for Scott's life in Mexico. Olivia had been ready to tear him limb from limb. He could see where she was coming from, considering he'd also been angry after being turned, but it had never before occurred to him that his sister could be that furious with him. They were twins. They were supposed to have each other's back no matter what, and they usually did. But this time? Well, this time Liam had let her down, and there was no way to fix that.

* * *

A knock on the door frame pulled Olivia out of her reading several hours after Liam left. Looking up from the bestiary, she raised her eyebrows as she observed the boy in front of her. Brett was leaning against the wall, clad in a snug leather jacket with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his tight jeans. He tried his best to smile sincerely at her. Meanwhile, she succeeded in laughing dryly, even though just a few hours ago, she'd thought she would never laugh again.

"Of course you're one of them, too," she drawled, her voice croaky from disuse, "Because it makes sense that everyone I in my life is secretly a werewolf. That is exactly the type of luck I'm having this week."

"So I'm in your life?" Brett asked, forced smile easily transforming into a smirk. She rolled her eyes as he took a few steps toward her.

"You're here, aren't you? Apparently you won't stay away, no matter what I do or say." Her tone was snarky, no trace of friendliness to be heard. If Brett had to name the emotion he was getting from her, he supposed he'd call it 'bitter'. The only other time he'd seen her this way was right before she left Devenford. But even at that time, the emotion hadn't been as intense as it was right now.

"Did you just rhyme at me?" he teased. He was putting effort into keeping the mood light, and she better appreciate that.

Olivia huffed in response. "What do you want from me, Talbot? Remember that now I can tear you apart if you make me mad." Honestly, she didn't think she could follow up on her threat, since she was feeling about as weak as a newborn kitten right now. But she couldn't let him know that, or he would walk all over her. She wouldn't let him have all the power in this...whatever they had between them. Not again.

Chuckling, Brett moved even closer. "Did the bite make you sassier, Dunbar?" He was staring at her like she was his prey. The feeling, while appealing back in October, was extremely disconcerting now that she knew he was actually a predator. A lot of things about him were suddenly starting to click into place.

Sneering, Olivia bared her new fangs without meaning to. But she liked the slight flash of fear in Brett's eyes enough that she just rolled with it. "Why don't you come over here and find out?"

He full out laughed at her response. "I like the fire, Liv. It's sexy." Months ago, her eyes would have sparkled at such a comment from the lanky boy in front of her. But now, it just felt like he was patronizing her. It was fairly obvious to her that he was trying to lull her into a false sense of security. For what reason, she couldn't say. But her newly enhanced senses were telling her that Brett definitely had an agenda.

Rolling her eyes, Olivia dragged her gaze from Brett and stared at the wall instead. "Yes, because I care so much about you thinking I'm sexy."

"You used to, back at Devenford." There was a mischievous glint in his eyes that thrilled her and scared her at the same time.

"Yeah, well, that seems like a lifetime ago," she said, only looking at him from the corners of her eyes. She was having a hard time controlling herself around him right now, and she wasn't fond of the idea of losing control.

"I suppose it does," Brett replied, his tone suddenly flat. The change drew Olivia's eyes back to him.

In a lukewarm tone - the best she could muster right now - she inquired, "So did you come here to flirt, or did you actually want something?"

"Satomi and McKenna sent me to check up on you. You should be able to leave tomorrow. You can go back to school, and you'll be free to join the McCall pack." He sounded resigned, and she couldn't help but wonder why that was.

Olivia shuddered involuntarily. "Is there another option? I obviously don't know a lot about this werewolf business, but I don't think I can be in a pack led by Scott McCall. A lady named Angelica came in earlier and told me some stories. I don't know if I trust him."

"That's okay. You can join Satomi's pack. She'd love to have you. Nicolette and McKenna are already pretty fond of you."

"Are you sure? There's no rule saying that my brother and I have to be in the same pack?" Olivia worried her bottom lip between her teeth, trying her hardest to keep her fangs in check so they didn't puncture the delicate skin.

"Most bitten wolves stay in the pack of the Alpha that bit them. Sometimes they change packs, but it's pretty rare. And I've always thought you were pretty special, so this makes perfect sense."

"Okay, well, I think I'd like to join this pack," she said after a bit of the thought, blushing all the while. Brett nodded, the corners of his mouth turning up into a small but genuine smile.

Olivia yawned, almost kitten like, and for some reason the tips of his ears turned pink. Luckily, the girl didn't notice.

"Why don't I let you get some rest? I'll go let Satomi know your decision," he said.

She nodded and he backed out of the room. Closing the door quietly behind him, Brett couldn't help but smile as he headed to Satomi's office. This was going to be his second chance, and he wasn't going to throw away his shot this time.

* * *

"She's _our_ Beta, Liam!" Brett snarled later that night. Liam had come over to ask why Lydia had been barred from seeing Olivia an hour ago, and a fight had been brewing since the taller boy opened the door.

"No, she's not! She's my sister!" Liam barked back, and he hated that he was acting like a stereotypical werewolf, but that was something he could think about later. Right now, all of his attention was on solving this problem with Olivia.

"Satomi was the one that bit her! That makes her Olivia's Alpha!" Brett's eyes quickly flashed gold, and Liam flashed his back.

"Blood trumps bite, Talbot!"

"Not according to your sister. She asked to be in our pack, right after you visited." Brett's tone was snide, and Liam felt the urge to deck him. But Scott wouldn't be particularly pleased if he got into a brawl with another pack's Beta. Especially when it was a member of a pack theirs was allied with.

"She wouldn't do that. She's all about family," said Liam, instead of speaking with his fists. He may have distanced himself from Olivia in the past month, but her love of family was not something that could disappear in such a short span of time. Things hadn't changed that much.

"Are you calling me a liar, Dunbar?" inquired Brett, managing his anger much better than the other Beta.

"Well, I ain't calling you a truther!" Liam spat.

Raising his eyebrow, the only thought Brett could voice was, "...wait, what?"

"Have you never seen _Drake and Josh_? I know you're a werewolf, but come on." Liam's tone was thick with derision, and Brett really wanted to hit the other boy.

"Liam, seriously, you're quoting a TV show right now?"

"Like you don't do anything stupid when you're stressed," Liam scoffed, and for some reason, the taller boy felt offended.

Brett sighed and crossed his arms. "That's not the point. Your sister is in Satomi's pack, end of story."

Growling, Liam balled his hands into fists, digging into the soft flesh of his palms with concealed claws. "At least let Lydia go and talk to her. I know Liv doesn't want to see me, but she can't have anything against Lydia!"

"I'll talk to Satomi and see what she says," Brett said eventually, "I make no promises. Good night, Liam."

The door slammed in Liam's face, which quickly adopted quite the surprised expression. Once he'd processed the situation, the freshman huffed and stomped away, looking for all the world like a pissed off toddler. Today had not at all turned out like he'd expected. Fuck.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Shout-out to my quick trip home for inspiring me to write. Hope y'all enjoyed._


	9. Book 2: Chapter 3

"Olivia! What the hell? Where have you been?" Annaleigh shrieked when Olivia walked into school on Wednesday morning. The older girl had been staking out the front doors for a half hour now, hoping against hope that her friend would show up, and so she had.

"Nice to see you too," Olivia replied casually as she walked towards her locker. Annaleigh followed in her wake, fists clenched and eyes incredulously wide.

"Really, that's all you have to say?" she asked, leaning on a closed locker right next to the one Olivia was currently opening. Olivia shrugged, and Annaleigh released a derisive huff. "Liv, you've been missing for three days. You have to give me something."

Olivia snorted. "I don't actually have to do anything. This is still a free country, last time I checked." She grabbed a few textbooks out of her locker and slammed the door shut with more force than was really necessary.

"What crawled up your ass and died?" Annaleigh asked as she fell into step with her friend, who was making her way to their shared English class. Olivia let out a bitter laugh as she strutted down the hall like it was a runway. She spotted a few boys eyeing her bare legs and shot them a coy smile. She flicked her hair over one of her shoulders as she carried on, laughing lightly as another boy wolf-whistled at her.

Annaleigh was dumbfounded. Who was this girl? It was only now that she took in the leather skirt and sky-high red stilettos Olivia was sporting, so far removed from her usual pastel colors and block heels. "What the hell happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" Olivia responded, not paying much attention. Huffing, Annaleigh grabbed her friend's arm and dragged her into the nearest bathroom. This wasn't exactly a conversation they needed to have in public. Releasing Olivia, Annaleigh inspected the area to make sure they were the only people present.

"Liv, you're wearing a leather skirt!" she hissed, after deciding that the coast was clear. Olivia, only a little startled by the abrupt change in location, said nothing as she approached a mirror. She rummaged around in her bag for a moment before pulling out a tube of red lipstick and beginning to touch up her makeup. "Are you even listening to me?"

"I don't see what the big deal is, 'Leigh. It's just an outfit," Olivia remarked offhandedly, puckering her lips. She tilted her head in several directions, inspecting her face from multiple angles.

"First of all, you wear flower crowns, not leather!" Annaleigh cried, "Secondly, it's not just your outfit! You were missing, Liv! As in, no one had any clue where you were! And today you just show up out of the blue, looking like a hooker, and you expect me to act like everything's fine? This isn't you!"

Olivia spun around, her face enraged. Her eyes were...why were they gold? What the hell? Annaleigh distinctly remembered that her friend had blue eyes, just like Liam. It was one of their defining twinnish features.

"You don't know what you're talking about. You have no idea who I am," Olivia growled, and Annaleigh instinctively took a step back. "Get off my back. I can handle myself." She stormed out of the bathroom, a whirlwind of blonde hair and black clothes, leaving Annaleigh completely dumbfounded.

* * *

"Liam, we need to talk. It's important." Annaleigh snagged the boy's arm after English class and hauled him into a deserted classroom. Liam quirked his head at her, looking like a confused dog. It was almost cute, except Annaleigh was too busy fuming to actually pay his face any mind.

"Um, Annaleigh...you're pretty and all, but you're not exactly my type..." he murmured, looking anywhere but at her. Annaleigh fake-gagged.

"Gross, Liam. I didn't pull you in here to confess my undying love for you, idiot," Annaleigh spat, "We need to talk about Liv."

Liam's face darkened and he nodded slowly. "Yeah, this is serious, isn't it? I can't believe she's a werewolf now."

Annaleigh started speaking at the same time. "Did you see her outfit? How did you let her..." She stopped as she processed what the boy had just said. Meanwhile, Liam audibly gulped as Annaleigh's words hit him.

"Liam, what are you talking about?" she asked, suspicious. She didn't immediately dismiss his statement, which would have been impressive in other circumstances.

"Nothing. What are _you_ talking about? You're the one who pulled me in here, after all." Liam was doing a terrible job of playing it cool, as usual. Annaleigh narrowed her eyes at him, trying to suss out a real answer from his body language.

"You just said that Liv's a werewolf," she accused.

Liam tried to play it off. "Psshh, no. Why would I say that? That's crazy. I said she's...aware of snow. Yeah, that's what I said." Before Annaleigh could get another word in edgewise, he sprinted away. This was the second time today a Dunbar had left her speechless, and she was getting really tired of it.

She left the classroom, even angrier than she had been when she'd entered. She decided to skip her second period history class for some quality time in the library. Apparently she was going to have to start researching werewolves, as insane as that sounded. _What a time to be alive_ , she thought, thoroughly irritated. _What are the Dunbars getting me into?_

* * *

"Liv, we have a problem." Liam was practically shouting as he cornered his sister at lunch later that day. She was sitting with a few lacrosse boys who had been fawning over her new look, and she looked like she was thoroughly enjoying herself. She also looked like she didn't appreciate her brother's interruption, a fact which said brother elected to ignore.

"Liam, I'm kind of busy here. Can we talk later?" Olivia asked, though she didn't wait for an answer before she returned to her 'adoring fans'. But Liam wasn't letting her get away that easily. He grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the table, her fighting every step of the way. He pulled her to a secluded spot in the courtyard, releasing her only when they were alone.

"What do you want?" Olivia growled, flashing her eyes at him. She'd never been this sensitive or rude before. What was the bite doing to her? She was acting like a bitchier Lydia, which wasn't exactly welcome. One of them was more than enough for him, thank you.

"I might have told Annaleigh you're a werewolf," Liam admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. He made his best effort to not look at her, knowing what he'd see. But he only held out for a few seconds before sheepishly meeting her gaze.

"You did what? What the hell were you thinking?" she snarled, glaring daggers at him. He wilted a bit under her stare, and she felt a brief surge of pride in herself, but she shoved that aside to allow room for her anger.

"It's not like I was planning on it," he replied, trying not to get angry at his (admittedly rightfully) volatile sister, "It sort of just slipped out."

Olivia exploded. "How does that just 'slip out', Liam? You're such an idiot!" She started pacing, stamping her feet down hard enough that her stilettos created little divots in the grass. "What are we going to do? I know I'm new to this, but I'm pretty sure 'Don't tell anyone' is, like, the number one rule!"

"Liv, calm down," Liam said, "We'll figure this out. I'm sure Scott will have an idea."

Olivia's resulting laugh was both dry and sarcastic. "Yes, because I trust Scott McCall to handle something important like this. That's rich, Lee, really."

Liam frowned. "What are you talking about? Scott's a great Alpha." Olivia's only response was a snort. "You don't even know him, Liv."

"I don't need to," she said, "I've heard enough. Do you even know how many people have died on his watch?" Liam tried to argue, to tell her that it wasn't Scott's fault, but Olivia was absolutely done with this conversation. "Don't say anything to Scott. My pack will figure this out. Yours has done enough."

With that, she strutted away, leaving her brother fuming in her wake. _This isn't over with_ , he decided. _I'm going to talk to Scott. He'll fix this. Besides, what does she know? She's been a werewolf for three days. She's practically a baby. She'll thank me for this later._

* * *

That afternoon after school was the first time Olivia attended a meeting of Satomi's pack. Nicolette and McKenna were both there, having greeted her with bear hugs when she arrived. Fabian was also present; he had winked and whistled when he saw Olivia's outfit. She had only glared at him. Several others were present: Fabian's aunt, Claudette; an older man named Marcus, and his wife, Sofia; their daughter, Helena; Marcus' cousin, Angelica (who Olivia had already met in the past few days, and who had told her the stories about Scott); Nicolette's father, Donald. Brett was missing, as was Satomi, but there were so many people wanting to meet her that she didn't even have time to wonder about their whereabouts.

The meeting was held at McKenna's house, and a man wandered in during the introductions. He was promptly named Riley, McKenna's very human husband who was descended from a well-known East Coast pack. He seemed nice enough, though he didn't say much. He came in, gave McKenna a short kiss, introduced himself to Olivia, and then left after greeting everyone else. McKenna explained that Riley built custom furniture for people throughout the country, and so he often kept odd hours.

Most of the meeting consisted of Olivia learning all about the dynamics of the pack. Obviously, Satomi was the Alpha, and McKenna was her second-in-command. Most of the pack were born werewolves, but a few were bitten, and some (like Riley and Donald) were just humans. But everyone was just as much a part of the family as everyone else.

"Do you have any questions?" McKenna asked about an hour and a half into the meeting. All eyes turned to Olivia, who was trying her hardest to not blush. She'd been fine with attention at school, where people barely knew her. But here, where all these people knew her most important secret? Well, the attention was getting to her. She opened her mouth to ask about the Annaleigh situation, but at that moment, Brett came sauntering in with his sister in tow.

"Sorry I'm late," he drawled as he approached McKenna and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He exchanged a complicated handshake with Fabian and gave Nicolette a quick hug before he realized that Olivia was sitting across the room. He immediately eyed her outfit, accidentally on display since she was sprawled out on the free loveseat, and let out a low whistle. "Looking good, Dunbar," he said appreciatively, "Did you get dressed up just for me?"

Olivia's blush came out in full force. "You wish," she responded, trying to lace her voice with confidence but failing, "I decided my new life status merited a new wardrobe."

Brett winked at her and made his way over, plopping himself down next to her and forcing her to relinquish some of the seat. He draped his arm over the back of the chair, casually dropping his hand to meet her shoulder. The meeting carried on with discussions of the last month, any questions Olivia might have completely forgotten.

She knew she should pay attention to the goings-on of her new world, especially since they mentioned her brother's name a few times. But Brett was lazily drawing patterns on her bare skin, and her body felt like it was on fire. She wanted to say something to him about his behavior, but this wasn't the time or place. She stewed in her frustration, eventually batting his hand away. He took her rebuff with his usual grace, but that didn't stop a shit-eating grin from adorning his face.

Towards the end of the meaning, the pack revisited the possibility of Olivia having questions. Although their concern was welcome, she hated what she would have to ask them. "So, there's kind of a problem at school," she admitted hesitantly.

"You got mad, right?" Nicolette butted in, "I know, it's hard to control your temper, but you'll figure it out. We have a mantra that we use to get ourselves focused. I can teach it to you later, if you want!"

Olivia shot a soft smile at the other girl, who was just so eager to bring her into the fold. "Thanks, I'll probably take you up on that. But that's actually not the big problem right now." She took a deep breath. Three days as a werewolf and she was already about to cause problems. "My brother told my best friend about werewolves."

* * *

 **A/N:** _Okay so I know it's been 7 months and I am the worst, but at least I've finally updated? This chapter took forever for me to figure out. I visited it at least once a month, but I could never figure anything out. So I took a break and started working on a Riverdale fanfic (which you should totally check out, fyi), and then I suddenly got struck with an idea a few days ago and now this chapter is finally done!_

 _Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed. I know Liv is a bit OOC, but that'll get explained, don't worry. I've already started working on Chapter 10, so hopefully that will take only a fraction of the time that this chapter did. Thanks for reading!_


	10. Book 2: Chapter 4

Liam and Olivia made it home about the same time that night. Both were lost in thought as they entered the house - Liam through the front door, Olivia through the back - and both were startled when they smacked into each other in the kitchen.

"I talked to Scott."

"I talked to McKenna."

The twins stared at each other for a few moments. Olivia was wearing anger all over her face, while Liam was sporting a mix of concern and sadness.

"I told you that my pack could handle this," Olivia said, maneuvering around her brother. She grabbed peanut butter from the cabinet and jelly from the fridge, slamming them onto one of the counters a little harder than necessary. Liam grabbed out plates and knives, and the two went to work making PB&J sandwiches as they talked.

"I know, but I had to tell him," Liam replied, slathering a piece of bread with peanut butter. He placed it on one of the plates and began working on another slice, while Olivia finished the piece she was slathering with jelly and laid it on top of Liam's completed slice. "This concerns him, too."

"Only because you're a moron," she snapped, attacking her next slice with fervor. She accidentally stabbed a hole in the untoasted bread, but she elected to ignore it. "Why in the world would you ever tell Annaleigh that I was a werewolf?" Liam started to protest, but she ignored that, too. "No, I'm honestly curious. What made you think, 'Oh yeah, this human girl that my sister's only known for a month totally needs to know that Olivia got bitten by a rabid werewolf over the weekend and will now turn into a furry creature of the night every full moon'?"

"You know I'm not exactly a big fan of thinking," Liam admitted sheepishly, "It really did just slip out. She was freaking out, and I was freaking out, but it turns out that she was just freaking out about your outfit..." He finally took a moment to take in her clothes, and he wrinkled his nose at his sister. "What are you wearing? "

"It's leather, Liam," Olivia replied huffily, "Nothing to freak out about."

"Don't you usually wear -" he paused to think of the right words, "Polka dots? You're practically obsessed with them."

"Not that it's any of your business," she said, tone cold as she assembled another sandwich, "But I decided that I needed a new look to reflect my new life."

"Nothing is going to change that much, Liv," Liam protested, spearing his knife into the peanut butter jar and stepping towards his sister. "You can still go to school and hang out with your friends and live your life."

Olivia mirrored her twin, stashing her knife in the jelly and stepping towards him. She poked him in the chest with her pointer finger, hard, and he rocked back before righting himself. "Nothing is going to change except for the need to control my emotions so I don't start biting and attacking people, you mean? And there's also the fact that my entire life now revolves around the phases of the moon."

"Well, yeah, but think of the new community you've gotten out of it. You have Scott's pack, Satomi's pack, packs across the country, and the tons of other supernatural creatures that live in town."

Olivia huffed. "Not worth it. Not by a long shot." She grabbed a plate with several of the sandwiches they'd created and stormed out of the kitchen.

"So, that went well," Liam muttered sarcastically before viciously biting into a sandwich.

* * *

Olivia's phone rang in the middle of her wallowing. She picked it up and examined it, disinterested. It wasn't a number that she recognized, which could be good or bad. Either way, a phone call was the perfect way to get her out of her own head, at least for a bit. So she decided to answer.

"Hello?" she asked, still feeling a little hostile after her small blowout with Liam.

"Liv! Hi!" chirped the voice on the other end, and Olivia felt herself relaxing instantly. She recognized that cheerful tone. It was Nicolette.

"Hey, Nic, what's up?"

"So, Satomi and McKenna had sort of a crazy idea. But you should hear me out before you say anything..."

* * *

The next morning before school, Liam barreled into Scott's living room, where the rest of the pack was awaiting his arrival. "Nice of you to show up," Stiles said, and Liam shot him an annoyed look.

"Sorry. I was dealing with another Olivia blowup. I ate the last of her favorite cereal and she almost ripped out my throat." Stiles laughed, and Lydia smacked him into silence.

"You're dumb," Malia said, blunt as always, "You should know better than to upset a newly-minted were."

Scott sighed and nodded. "She's not wrong. Remember how you were after I bit you? You were almost ripping out throats on a daily basis."

Liam argued, "Yes, but that's because of my I.E.D. Liv doesn't have that. They tested her a ton of times."

"But female weres are typically more violent," Stiles chimed in, though he shrunk under the glares from Malia and Kira and Lydia, "Hey, remember Cora and Erica and Kali? They were crazy." The glares intensified and Stiles shut himself up once more.

"The point is," Scott said, trying to move over his best friend's faux pas, "You should try to avoid angering her as much as possible. Satomi probably hasn't had a chance to train her very much. She's going to be volatile for a bit. Just be careful."

"I know how to handle my own sister," Liam grumbled under his breath, hoping that no one would hear him over the sounds of them gathering their belongings. But of course everyone did, and Stiles treated him to a perfunctory slap on the back of his head in passing. Liam let out a startled bark, which had everyone laughing in seconds.

"Don't sass your elders," Stiles said, reprimanding the freshman, "We'll whoop you, youngster."

* * *

Olivia was wearing more leather when she arrived at school, though this time she was on the back of a high octane motorcycle when she appeared. Liam was waiting for her outside the front doors, chatting with Mason, and the duo treated her with slacked jaws as she pulled up.

She pulled the black helmet off her head, shaking out her blonde curls as she did so. The driver parked and pulled off their own helmet, revealing a mess of brown curls with blonde highlights. The two girls trotted up to where the boys were waiting. Olivia was sporting a smirk, and the other girl was grinning widely.

"This is my brother Liam, and his best friend Mason," Olivia drawled. Liam's smile was extremely tentative, while Mason's was pretty eager.

"Lovely to meet you," the other girl said, brusquely shaking their hands. "My name's Nicolette Evans."

Liam eyed Nicolette suspiciously. "And how exactly do you know my sister?" he asked accusingly, already having an idea, but still wanting to hear it from her.

"We have...mutual interests," Nicolette said eventually, after mulling the question over for a few seconds, "We met and just...clicked. Right, Liv?"

Olivia nodded, and she barely flinched as one of the front doors swung wide open. Annaleigh came stomping out, confrontation clearly on her mind. She stopped as soon as she saw the blonde girl in front of her, her scowl growing as she crossed her arms.

"And who is this, Olivia? Have you been holding out on me?" Nicolette interjected, practically purring as she eyed Annaleigh, who was now uncharacteristically blushing as she took in the new girl at her best friend's side.

"I'm Annaleigh, Olivia's best friend." Annaleigh stuck her hand out for a shake, and Nicolette grasped it easily.

"Well, I'm Nicolette. Lettie to you. And I am very single, and very ready to mingle." She punctuated the comment with a wink, and Olivia honest-to-goodness snorted.

"Um...well..." Annaleigh was clearly flustered, much to the amusement of those that knew her. "It's...um...nice to meet you?" She squeaked at the end of her statement, and Liam had to cough to cover his laughter.

"The pleasure is all mine." Lettie was officially purring her words, and Olivia had to elbow her in the side to get her to stop. Lettie was still appreciatively eyeing a blushing Annaleigh as the rest of the group's attention returned to the resident leather-clad blonde.

"So you're still rolling with this leather thing?" Mason asked conversationally, "I mean, it looks good on you, but I kind of miss your old clothes."

Olivia smiled bitterly. "I do, too. But it felt like time for a change." Mason shrugged in response, but Liam wasn't going to let his sister out of an inquisition that easily.

"So what's she doing here?" he asked, almost petulant as he jabbed a finger in Lettie's direction. Olivia shot him a look but said nothing.

"I just transferred from Devenford," Lettie explained, finally dragging her attention back to the conversation at hand, "My parents decided that it was time for a change, and I agreed." She smiled brightly.

"Well, welcome to Beacon Hills High," Mason said cheerfully. She thanked him before looping her arm through one of Olivia's.

"It was nice meeting all of you, but I think Liv needs to show me to the front office." Lettie dragged her friend inside before anyone else could say a word, but Olivia didn't seem to mind. She didn't give her friends or brother so much as a parting glance, too busy whispering and giggling with her new friend.

"That was weird, right?" Liam said, once the two girls were out of earshot.

"The only weird thing," Mason said as he slung his arm over Annaleigh's shoulder, "was Annaleigh blushing about that girl. I thought you were fearless and flirtatious."

"Bite me, Hewitt," Annaleigh responded, with only a hint of malice in her tone as she shrugged off the boy, "Did you see her? She was gorgeous. And she had to be a junior at the very least."

Liam snorted. "She's a freshman. I recognize her from Devenford now. She's best friends with Brett Talbot, also known as the guy that broke Liv's heart. Remember him?"

Annaleigh wrinkled her nose while Mason sighed fondly. "He was hot," Mason said, a dopey smile on his face. The other two freshmen sighed.

"Let's just go to class."

* * *

 **A/N:** _So I know I was supposed to update a billion years ago, practically, but I obviously didn't. At least I'm updating now? And I'll try to cut down on the time between updates._

 _Anyways, this is sort of a filler chapter but also it's kind of necessary to get to where we're going, so please bear with me._

 _Follow me on tumblr catgrant for Liv edits and lots of random fandom stuff._


	11. Book 2: Chapter 5

"How was school?" Brett asked Olivia and Lettie when they wandered into McKenna's house that evening. The rest of the pack was already gathered in the living room, chatting amongst themselves as they waited for the meeting to start. Brett's sister Lori smiled at them from where she was talking with Fabian but quickly returned to her conversation afterwards.

Olivia rolled her eyes and brushed past him, trying to not react when she felt a spark where their arms touched. She sat down on one of the few free chairs in the room and tried to not listen as Brett and Lettie talked. She checked her phone instead. There were a few texts were waiting for her which caused her to groan. One was from Liam, another apology that she intended to ignore. Another was from Annaleigh with her demanding that they meet at the library tonight to talk. The final message was from an unknown number. With nothing better to do, she decided to open it.

 _from: unknown  
_ _olivia - this is lydia. liam thinks that we should talk. come over to my house when you have some free time in the next few days._

She considered deleting the message. After all, she wanted nothing to do with Scott's pack. But her fingers exited out of her messages altogether without her even really thinking about it.

"How about we start now?" McKenna said a minute or so later, a small smile on her face.

Olivia cocked her head in confusion. "Shouldn't we wait for Satomi?" she asked. Brett smirked at her from the other side of the room and she childishly stuck out her tongue.

McKenna's reply was sweet as cotton candy. "She's actually out of town, Olivia. She's consulting with another pack that recently lost its emissary. So I'm in charge for the near future."

Olivia nodded in response, folding her hands on her lap. She knew it was perfectly okay that she didn't know Satomi's whereabouts but she still felt embarrassed. It didn't help that Brett was still looking at her for some unfathomable reason. His eyes were piercing and knowing. She felt naked under his gaze and she hated it.

"Okay, kids, so these are the things you need to know..."

* * *

To her utter surprise, she ended up meeting with Annaleigh at the appointed hour. Olivia actually hadn't meant to walk over to the library. However, she'd been jogging with her headphones in and her body led her here. With a sigh, she opened the door with her keycard and strolled inside, ignoring the few people there that were eyeing her new abs. A cropped tank wasn't exactly the right shirt for the library. Her friend was on the top level in a back corner where they couldn't be heard. At least _someone_ could be discrete in her life.

"Hey, Leigh," she greeted with a head nod, sliding into a seat across from the older girl.

Annaleigh narrowed her eyes at Olivia and observed the blonde's face before speaking. "Nice of you to show up. You're twenty minutes late."

"Count yourself lucky. I wasn't planning on showing up at all."

"Seriously, chill it with the bitch vibe," Annaleigh snarked, rolling her eyes, "It doesn't suit you. You're not Lydia Martin, Olivia. No one is going to put up with it."

Olivia flicked her hair over her shoulder and checked her phone, acting like her friend's words just rolled off her back. (Truthfully, they stung.) Keeping her cool was her main mission nowadays. _Three things cannot long be hidden - the sun, the moon, the truth._ The mantra that Nic had taught her had yet to help her, but there was always a first time for everything.

"What do you want? I have a life, contrary to popular belief." The only life she had right now was training. And there was only so much of it she could handle in a day.

The brunette huffed and slid an open book over to Olivia. "Tell me about being a werewolf."

Oh yeah, this was still a thing. "I don't know what you're talking about, Annaleigh," Olivia declared, now checking her nails. There was dirt under them from running with her claws out earlier. She desperately needed a manicure. Could werewolves get manicures? She'd have to ask one of the girls about that later.

Another eye roll. Annaleigh tapped a section of page and the blonde peered at it. _In its human form, the werewolf may display the golden eyes of an innocent when agitated, or blue eyes if they have killed an innocent. Depending on the their level of agitation, their claws or fangs might also make an appearance._

Well, shit. The Beastiary had said something similar. Had she been so careless in her emotions that her wolf traits had been exposed? This was not looking good for her. The pack would be furious.

"I've seen gold eyes on Liam, and now on you. There's no human explanation for that, not when you two are out here with the bluest fucking eyes," Annaleigh replied, leaning in with a smirk. "Don't try to hide it. I might not be the smartest in our class, but I _do_ pay attention, Liv."

"Well..." Might as well tell her and control the narrative, right? Wasn't that what celebrities did with scandals and leaks and whatnot? Yeah, that felt like sound logic. "I wasn't always a werewolf..."

* * *

"Hey, Olivia!"

She was walking down the hall the next morning, squashed between Annaleigh and Nicolette as the two girls flirted with each other. Olivia had told Nicolette last night about Annaleigh officially knowing. The other werewolf had actually accepted it pretty quickly. She'd been warm to Annaleigh when they met up before school, and they were already thick as thieves before lunch had even hit.

"Olivia! Wait up!"

The voice was even more recognizable now that she had her wolf hearing. She stopped dead in her tracks, a body smacking into her from behind and landing on the ground with a small thud. _Shit shit shit._ Olivia whirled around and saw Alexander Knox splayed on his back, cracking up as he looked at her.

"Didn't know such a small girl could be a brick wall," he teased as he sat up, "I guess this is one way to get your attention, huh?"

Snapping out of her frozen state, she threw a hand to her mouth as she gasped. The entire hallway was staring at them with looks of amusement and confusion on most faces. Annaleigh and Nicolette were standing behind her and quietly snickering. They were so getting chewed out later.

Olivia's hand dropped and was offered to Alexander. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to. Are you okay? Did you bruise your butt?"

 _"Did she just ask if he bruised his butt?"_ The question was muttered between members of the crowd. Her face flushed a bright red and she internally kicked herself. It was such a stupid question. Why had she even asked it?

Alexander laughed, taking the proffered hand and standing up. He did not let go of her hand. "Nah, I'm good. Don't worry about it. Are *you okay?"

She nodded, sucking on the inside of one of her cheeks. There was nothing in her head except nerves. Annaleigh nudged her in the back. Olivia shot a glare over her shoulder before turning back to her crush.

"So, now that the question of injuries has been answered," Alexander said with a laugh and a grin, "Do you want to go out some time?"

There was no doubt in her mind that she looked like a deer in headlights. Why now? This wasn't fair! One of McKenna's steadfast rules was that Olivia couldn't date any humans until she was at least a full moon into her powers. And even then, she was only allowed to be casual until she was deemed to have full control. Nothing had been said about dating other wolves, which had both Fabian and Brett grinning like loons for the rest of the meeting. As if she'd date either of them.

Annaleigh, who didn't know about the rule because it hadn't seemed important to tell her, nudged Olivia again and again. In any other life, she would have jumped at the offer. Even now she wanted to say 'yes'.

"Sorry, no." Olivia turned and raced away before anything could be said by anyone. That was the only way to hide the tears she wanted to shed. She let herself outside. A run would help. After dropping off her backpack at Lettie's motorcycle, she sprinted into the woods even as she started to shift. Being a werewolf sucked.

* * *

 _from: annaleigh  
_ _liv wtf_

 _from: annaleigh  
_ _oh lettie told me bout ur rule. sorry babe_

 _from: lettie  
_ _i told him that you'd been feeling sick all day. don't worry._

 _from: liam  
_ _liv u ok?_

 _from: mason  
_ _U TURNED DOWN ALEXANDER KNOX? RU DYING OR SOMETHING?_

* * *

That night, she camped out at McKenna's house. The older werewolf and her husband hadn't been surprised to see Olivia, and the blonde assumed Lettie had called. Well, that suited her just fine. She didn't really feel like talking to anyone right now. All of her texts were ignored and so were her calls. There wasn't anything from her parents so clearly a cover story had been concocted. At least someone was looking out for her. Knowledge like that helped a little bit.

A knock on the guest room door had her yelling, "Go away!" Instead the door cracked open and curious eyes peered around the edge. It was Brett's sister Lori. Olivia had never really interacted with her, but she seemed to get along with the rest of the pack extremely well.

"Olivia?" she asked hesitantly, "Can I come in?"

Olivia sighed and nodded. Lori crept in, closing the door softly before making her way to the edge of the bed. She perched there with a small smile on her face. Silence hung over the room as the two girls stared at each other.

"Can I help you with something?"

Lori laughed a little. "Brett said you were blunt. Guess he was right."

She wrinkled her nose at the mention of Brett, although her heart fluttered at the idea of him talking about her. Knowing him, though, he could easily be spewing insults about her to anyone that would listen. She'd have to remind him to keep her name out of his mouth entirely. "That doesn't answer my question."

"I thought I could help you come to terms with all of this," Lori admitted, "I've sort of gone through the same thing you're going through."

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "I thought you and Brett were born wolves?" That's what Lettie had said when she'd asked, at least.

Lori nodded, smile turning rueful. "Well, yeah, but we also faced a major upheaval because of lycanthropy. Our whole pack was killed by hunters when we were younger. Everyone except for us. By the grace of god, Satomi found us on her way home from consulting for a pack near ours." She spoke of their Alpha with the highest level of praise in her voice. "Most Alphas would have killed two little underfed omegas, but not her. She took us in, trained and raised us, kept us on the straight and narrow. I hated myself for the longest time. I hated everything about being a werewolf, everything that our powers stood for. Even tried to kill myself at one point."

The older blonde's eyes went wide. Lori had admitted such a dark thing so easily. Was she having a psychotic break or something? Olivia had no idea how to handle something like that. Should she yell for McKenna?

"But Satomi and the rest of the pack reminded me of all the good my powers can do. We found the people that killed my pack and brought them to justice for killing innocents. We've helped save countless other supernatural creatures. We help defend defenseless humans from people and creatures that prey on them. It's a burden, sure, but the bite is a gift, too. You can do so much now, more than you ever could." Lori's eyes were shining, voice earnest as she spoke, and she grabbed Olivia's hand and squeezed. Olivia wanted to believe all of this. It sounded like perfection to be able to do so much good. And yet...

"You're not worried that you're going to hurt someone?"

Lori squeezed her hands again. "Well, yeah, but that's why we train," she explained, "Why we have that mantra and cool down techniques. We have to work every day to stay in control. But it's worth it in the end. I promise it is."

Olivia huffed and fell back onto the mattress, her hands still connected to Lori's. "This wasn't my plan. I was supposed to star on Broadway," she muttered, "I'm really good. I was going to be the most famous person this town has ever produced."

"We all had dreams," Lori reassured her, "And some wolves are actually in the industry. You can have that if you really want to. You just need to learn control."

"You really think so?"

"I really do."

* * *

 _to: lydia  
_ _i'll be over tomorrow after school_

* * *

 **A/N:** _O_ _kay wow, it's been over a year since I updated this fic. It's crazy how time flies, huh? But i'm back and I will be updating more often now. I know I always say that, but I've graduated college and have a shitty part-time job so i have tons of time. This isn't my strongest chapter **but** I'm trying to get back into the swing of this story. Please bear with me. And if you could review? I will probably legit cry._


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